Yu-Gi-Oh: Scarlet Sentinels
by FaytlError
Summary: Yuichi Kawasaki is trapped in The Blight, a hellish place where Duelists must struggle to survive The Blight itself and each other. Yuichi's drive to escape collides with the strange powers that are growing inside him... powers that somebody wants...
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to the Blight

**Yu-Gi-Oh: Scarlet Sentinels**

 **Chapter One**

 **Welcome to the Blight**

The sky was a strange shade of purple today. It had been green the day before, and red the day before that, but today it was a dark shade of electric purple. Quite literally electric, as the usual bolts of lightning coursed through the thick dark clouds that constantly roiled above the land, casting their flickering shadows on the wasteland below. Shadows that passed over the two shambling figures that made their way arduously across the blasted gray plains.

They were a widely differing pair. While one was tall and thin, the other was short and stout, waddling along in the wake of his longer-legged companion, whose legs moved easier through the thick crust of ash and rubble that made up the ground. The tall one was darker, skin a pale brown beneath the ragged cloak he kept clutched around his spindly body. The other was paler, his face more optimistic and less lined, blonde hair messy and clearly long uncombed. He also bore a cloak, both of them stained gray with the ashes they now trampled across. Neither of the two could be any older than eighteen.

They had but one other thing in common: Circular hunks of metal, latched around their left forearms, each about the size of a middling dinner plate. Folded beneath them were two flat blue pieces of rectangular metal, lines traced upon them indicating five rectangular spaces. The centers of these devices bore a display, lit up with the white glow of LEDs, spelling out numbers that glinted out across the dark landscape, the only visible light on the plains. The taller one's read 1700, his companion's 1300.

"Are we almost back yet, Gotam?" asked the shorter one, wheezing a bit with the effort of keeping up with the older boy.

"Nearly, I think," replied Gotam, voice tinged with the accent of his origin. Gotam was from the southern shores of India, whereas the other, Willard, was from Maine in the United States. Neither of them knew exactly where they were now. They hadn't for quite some time. "It's hard to tell out here; there aren't any landmarks in this area."

Willard squinted up at the sky, trying to find the paler section that housed the sun behind the thick clouds. "I think it's near noon. We could wait for the midday strike and then-"

"No," Gotam interrupted abruptly, cutting off his companion with a wave of the hand. "We don't know if anyone else is close by. We keep going."

"Alright, if you want," Willard acquiesced, sighing as he pulled his cloak tighter around him to ward off a chilly wind. "It keeps getting colder. Do you think winter's almost here?"

"Who can tell?" asked Gotam despondently. "It's almost impossible to tell if it's _daytime_ , let alone the season." Willard fell quiet, sensing Gotam's bad mood. The two walked on in silence, their footprints left stark against the ash before the winds would blow over them to mask their trail once again. It was the only thing Gotam liked about The Blight: It was hard to follow those who left no trace.

After another half hour of walking, they came across a depression in the earth, ash sifting down the sides of the shallow hole occasionally. These drifting pieces of ash collected at the bottom of the gentle slopes, and atop the mound were three figures, clustered around a camp fire. Their attire was similar to Gotam's and Willard's, and they likewise had Duel Disks strapped to their arms: old models, the very oldest, in fact. The Kaibacorp models they wore were of the first generation of Duel Disk, introduced in the Battle City tournament many years before the advent of the blades of pure light that emitted from disks of the day.

The figures looked up, apprehensively raising the Duel Disks before they recognized their fellows. They were two boys and one girl. One boy was wiry, skin black, hair curled tightly against his head, his electric yellow eyes panning up to meet Gotam's pale ruby. The other boy was younger, hair dark and matted around his depressed face, barely even acknowledging his fellows arrival once he had lowered his Disk. The girl, hair a dirty blond with wide eyes of brown, rose to walk and meet them.

"Are you guys alright?" she asked, circling around behind them to wrap her arms comfortingly about their shoulders. "Did you run into any trouble? Find any cards?"

Gotam didn't reply, frowning fiercely as his gaze fell shamefully to the ground. Willard cleared his throat awkwardly. "We, uh, we found a few… It's not much though." He held out a hand, three cards clutched in his fingers. "Here, Hikari. One for each of you."

Hikari's face fell as she took the cards, turning them over to reveal three Magic cards: Two copies of the card Mooyan Curry, and one copy of Blue Medicine. "Is this all you could find?" she asked, trying to sound gentle, but her voice trembling in obvious disappointment, hands shaking.

Gotam kicked savagely at the earth, spitting up a hail of ash. "I'm afraid so," Willard admitted, hanging his head as he sat by the fire, next to the darker boy. "We found one more, but Gotam didn't want to risk me out there below a thousand. He made me take it."

"Did you find one for yourself, Gotam?" Hikari asked, looking to the boy. He shook his head, raising his Duel Disk irritably.

"I have the highest Life Points here already," he said bluntly. "I'm low priority here."

Hikari looked down at the cards, biting her lip. "Are… are you sure? Because you're still the best duelist out of all five of us… Maybe you should take a card anyway, just in-"

"Damn it, Hikari, just give Justin and Taro their cards and get some Life Points, will you?" Gotam yelled, rounding on her with anger in his eyes. "Worry about yourself, dammit, I can handle my own Life Points, okay?"

"I know, I know," Hikari hastily assured him, backing away, the cards held before her like a shield. "I just-"

A loud clap of thunder cut off her words. They all looked up at the sky, eyes widening expectantly as lightning coursed through it, thicker and thicker, until the clouds split open with a roar, bolts of electricity flying down like darts. Five flew for their crater, and before they could even move, struck their Duel Disks with a flash of light, the group averting their eyes from the glow.

As one, the number display on their Disks shuddered, and then began to fall. Willard's fell to 1200, Gotam's to 1600. The other three lost one hundred points each as well. Taro squinted through his thick hair to look at his score of 400, while Hikari and Justin grimly observed their own points' fall to 800 and 1050.

Gotam shook his arm brusquely to shake the numbness out of it. "Just give everybody their cards, okay?" he asked, moving back to the top of the pit. "Willard, did you see if any of those bolts were close to us?"

"Hard to say, Gotam, you know how bright the light is…"

Hikari quietly walked over to the tiny fire, wordlessly handing Taro the Blue Medicine card. He barely looked at it, sliding it into his Duel Disk, Life Point meter rising to read 800. Hikari and Justin took the Mooyan Curry cards, their own points rising by 200.

"We aren't going to get much farther," Taro said bleakly, staring into the fire. "Look at us, only a single attack from death."

"Shut up, Taro," said Justin quietly, looking up wearily at the violet sky.

"I'm serious, man," Taro replied shakily, baggy eyes empty and hollow. "Only a handful of points between us before the storm takes us. We're fucked, plain and simple. Specially me. I can't duel worth beans, and I'm supposed to do something with 800 measly Life Points? Forget it, I'm fucked. We're all _fucked_."

"You've lasted this long," Hikari assured him, with the comforting air she used whenever she talked to Taro during these frequent moments. "We've been here at least six months, and you're still here." Taro didn't reply, glaring into the flames to avoid her gaze. Hikari sighed, sitting back in a cross-legged position as she looked down at the readout on her own Duel Disk. She was so low herself… It seemed so long ago that this meter had once read 4000. That many points, it had seemed like so much. Now she knew how easy it was to be knocked down into the dregs, one of the many who shambled through The Blight, searching for the cards that would ensure the daily lightning would not drain them of their last hundred Life Points.

She leaned against Justin's side, the older boy wrapping an arm around her in assurance. They had met a month into this hell. It had just been Hikari and Taro, then, before they found Gotam. Hikari had been with Taro from the start. She had thought often they may be brother and sister. She wasn't sure. That time before The Blight was forever a haze in her mind, always just out of reach of her probing thoughts.

"Gotam? Gotam, Gotam! You need to see this." Hikari was roused by the shouting of Willard. Panicked shouting. She perked up, standing to run to Willard, who was looking with a pale face out at the wasteland that stretched all around them. She followed his gaze, and her hands flew to her mouth in horror. Approaching their hole, coming right for them, were two figures, running pell-mell straight for them like dogs to a fresh hunt. Figures with the weight of a duel disk upon their arms.

" _Shit_!" Gotam hissed, running down to quickly gather some small bundles, what little food they had managed to find. "They must have seen our bolts! Come on guys, we have to get out of here, now!"

Justin and Taro jumped up, reanimated by fear. They hurried towards the opposite end of the crater, pulling their cloaks tighter around them to cease their flapping in the wind. Hikari turned to follow, but stepped back to fall on the ground when a third figure appeared over the crater lip, popping up with a yell as Justin and Taro jerked back in surprise.

"Leaving so soon?" the boy, a tall, thin one with burnt orange hair and leering black eyes. "Not before I take your Life Points for myself, you aren't," he went on, raising his duel disk and clenching a fist, the wings folding out beneath it to form a long platform before him. His Life meter was visible: 2000.

"No… No, please," Hikari begged, taking a step back. She felt a hand at her back, and turned to see Gotam staring at her over his shoulder, expression stricken, worried.

"Hikari," he hissed, raising his own Duel Disk. "You help Taro and Justin. Willard and I will take these two. Maybe then we stand a chance."

Hikari bit her lip, nodding shakily. She walked across the crater, eyes locked on the boy as she raised her arm, clenching a fist to activate her own Duel Disk. The boy smiled expectantly.

"Three, eh? Well, now, this IS nice." He bowed mockingly, Duel Disk arm swept out to the side. "Name's Yamaguchi," he said by way of introduction. "Yamaguchi Kilik. What are your names? No, no, on second thought, don't tell me," he interrupted, raising a finger as Hikari opened her mouth to respond. "I'll take a guess. Dead Meat One…" he began, finger falling to point at Taro. "Dead Meat Two… and Dead Meat Three, of course!" he finished, finger falling to land on Hikari as she took her place between the boys. "Come on, I'm waiting to devour your precious Life Points! I haven't got all day!"

"Just shut up, will you?" Justin barked irately, drawing his hand even as his Duel Disk opened. "Let's just get this over with… We haven't got all day to listen to YOU."

Kilik's eyes narrowed as he appraised Justin. "Mm. Seems you still have a bit of your hope left, huh? With Life Points as low as yours, I wouldn't mouth off so much, kid." He raised his Duel Disk, drawing five cards from his deck. "C'mon, kids, let's do this!"

Hikari and Justin looked over to Taro, who took a deep breath, raising his arm and activating his own Duel Disk, looking grimly ahead as the four squared up for an ordeal that would end in at least one of them gone from The Blight. Gone from everything.

"DUEL!"

Hikari(1000)/Taro(800)/Justin(1250) vs Kilik (2000)

"The first turn is mine. I summon Jurrac Guiaba in attack mode!" Kilik threw a card down onto his Duel Disk, and from the ground issued a gout of fire. His opponents stepped back nervously as a blue and red dinosaur crawled from the earth, baring its teeth as it hissed hungrily, flames spewing up from within its maw.

Jurrac Guaiba, Level 4, FIRE Dinosaur, 1700/400

Hikari was the first to recover. She stepped forward, reaching into her hand. "When my opponent Normal Summons a monster, I summon Naturia Cosmobeet from my hand to the field!" She lowered the card onto the Duel Disk, placing it upon it sideways. Before her appeared a compacted ball of dirt, flowers growing from its top as a large pair of innocent eyes appeared upon its surface.

Naturia Cosmobeet, Level 2 Tuner, EARTH Plant, 1000/700

"A summon on my own turn? You're even greedier than I am!" Kilik sneered, waving a hand carelessly. "I play one card, face-down. I end my turn!"

"My move!" Justin yelled, drawing a card from his deck. "I summon the Tuner monster Geomancer of the Ice Barrier!" This monster was a human, draped in a blue robe and holding an octagonal mirror in one hand.

Geomancer of the Ice Barrier, Level 3 Tuner, WATER Spellcaster, 800/1200

"At least your girlfriend had the sense to put her monster in defense mode," Kilik chided obnoxiously. "What are you going to do with a weak Tuner like that without another monster to use for Synchro Summon?"

Justin rolled his eyes irritably, selecting a card from his hand. "This. By discarding one card and choosing an Attribute, I stop all monsters of that Attribute from attacking my Geomancer!" He slid the Dewdark of the Ice Barrier in his hand into his Duel Disk, and his Geomancer's mirror took on a red glow. "The Attribute I choose is Fire, so your Fire monsters can't attack me!"

For once, Kilik actually looked angry. He looked down at his deck with gritted teeth, clearly the face of a man who knew all too well that most, if not all, of his deck was composed of Fire monsters. "You prick," he grunted. Justin just smiled with satisfaction as he nodded to Taro.

The boy meekly drew a card, not even verbally declaring it was his move. "I play a monster in defense mode," he said, selecting a card and placing it on the Duel Disk face-down and sideways. An enlarged version of the card appeared in front of him, a shadowy sphere rising to represent the unknown monster that lurked beneath. "And I play one card face-down," he added, sliding a card from his hand into his Disk. "That… that ends my turn."

Hikari frowned worriedly. With 800 Life Points, Taro more than any of them risked a lot by playing any monster of his in attack mode. Hopefully he would be able to deal the finishing blow in this duel to Kilik, to take any Life Points he had remaining for himself. She had to do her best to set him up to do that.

"My turn," she said, raising her Duel Disk, shooting a quick look over her shoulder to see how Gotam and Willard were doing. Gotam had a tall woman with green hair wielding a staff protecting him, a monster she knew as Caam, Serenity of Gusto. All Willard had was his Fishborg Archer, crouched protectively in front of him with measly 300 defense points. She turned back to Kilik, placing her hand on her deck.

"Draw!" She turned the card over, eyes widening at the sight of what she had pulled. "I drew it! I release my Naturia Cosmobeet, and Advance Summon Naturia Bamboo Shoot!" Her Cosmobeet faded away, and in its place rose a brown and beige lump of enormous bamboo, eyes plaintively looking around in apprehension.

Naturia Bamboo Shoot, Level 5, EARTH Plant, 2000/2000

"Advance Summon?" Kilik asked, talking more to himself than anybody. "She didn't go for a Synchro Summon?"

"Naturia Bamboo Shoot, effect activate!" Hikari called, pointing at Kilik. Her monster sucked in a breath through its mouth, puffing up as a bright green aura surrounded it. Kilik tilted his head, then stepped back with a jolt as something pushed up against the sole of his weathered boot. He looked about him, watching as shoots of long, tall bamboo grew around him from the dead ground.

"And just what the hell is this?" he asked warily, raising an eyebrow.

Hikari smiled grimly. "Bamboo Shoot's monster effect: If I Advance Summon this monster, my opponent is prevented from activating any Magic or Trap cards!"

"No Magic or Trap cards?!" Kilik barked, shocked. Justin allowed himself a satisfied smile, and Taro looked a lot less nervous. "What the hell kind of crap is that, anyway?!" Kilik roared, waving his hands in the air as Hikari let out a sigh of relief. "Are you shitting me?! What the hell!"

"You alright, Kilik?" asked one of the two on the other end of the crater, the one dueling Willard.

"I'm fine!" Kilik yelled, glaring angrily at Hikari. "No Magic or Trap cards… Ridiculous. Are you done yet?"

"I end my turn," Hikari said, nodding.

"Finally. Draw!" Kilik drew forcefully, pulling the card from his Duel Disk with a jerk of the arm. He turned it around, sneering at what he saw. "Well, that's just plain old perfect, isn't it?" he said to himself, revolving the card as he placed it on his Duel Disk. "I summon the Tuner monster, Jurrac Dino!"

"Tuner monster?!" asked Hikari in dismay as squat red dinosaur, face covered with large horns, appeared to join Guiaba.

Jurrac Dino, Level 3 Tuner, FIRE Dinosaur, 1700/800

"Is he going to be able to Synchro Summon?" Justin asked himself. "Destroy Bamboo Shoot?"

But Kilik surprised everyone with his next order. "Jurrac Guaiba, attack the face-down monster now!" His Guiaba raced ahead, flaming jaws gnashing as it raced towards Taro's set monster.

 _Oh no!_ thought Hikari, realizing what was going on. _He's going to attack Taro with BOTH his monsters!_

"Activate Trap!" Taro yelped, one of his cards flipping up. "Shift! This switches your attack to another one of our monsters!" He raised a finger, somewhat desperately yelling: "I choose Bamboo Shoot!" Guaiba changed course, running towards the stronger monster, Bamboo Shoot surprised at the monster's approach.

"Yes! Bamboo Shoot is stronger than Guaiba!" Justin yelled triumphantly. "He'll lose his monster and be unable to Synchro Summon!"

Guaiba crashed into Bamboo Shoot, a fiery explosion resulting that almost pushed Hikari off her feet. Her monster was stronger, so why was she experiencing knockback? She heard a whirring noise, and looked down at her Duel Disk to see its Life readout falling. From 1000 to 800.

"Sorry…" she heard Kilik chuckle as the smoke cleared, revealing him standing there with a monster card held glowing in his hand. "But your little shoots didn't do you any good against the powers of my Jurrac Brachio! By discarding this card, all my Jurrac monsters gain an additional 500 attack points!" Guaiba reared its head, attack power raising to 2200. Dino was stomping its feet, its attack power similar. Hikari watched wide-eyed, shocked. Her field was empty. Her field. Was empty.

"Guaiba's monster effect, activate! When I destroy a monster by battle with this card, I summon any Jurrac monster from my Deck, so long as its attack power isn't any higher than 1700. The one I choose is my Jurrac Ptera!" From the embers rose, upon great flaming wings, a fearsome pterodactyl, opening its long beaklike mouth and letting out a horrid caw.

Jurrac Ptera, Level 3, FIRE Dinosaur, 800/1500

"I can't attack your Geomancer… Not YET, anyway," Kilik sneered at Justin, moving his eyes over to Taro's field. "But, on to what I was going to do NEXT. Jurrac Dino, attack his face-down monster!" Dino lumbered forward, leaping into the air high above Taro's monster. The card flipped up, revealing it to be a weak monster, a white-haired man covered in armor that did nothing against Dino stomping it flat.

Necro Gardna, Level 3, DARK Warrior, 600/1300

"Now that's all cleared up… Your turn," Kilik leered, turning on Hikari again. She raised a hand to her mouth, eyes welling up with tears as she struggled not to break down completely. "Jurrac Ptera, attack her Life Points directly!"

His pterodactyl took to the sky, circling high above Hikari, flapping its wings and cawing out loudly as it released a tornado of flames upon her. Hikari sniffed, raising her arms acceptingly to cover her head.

"I activate Necro Gardna's monster effect!" Hikari looked up in surprise as she heard a clanging sound, and saw that the tornado of flames had been intercepted. Taro's monster was back, but not entirely. It was more like a shadowy remnant of the monster that had just been destroyed.

"Necro Garnda can negate an attack by banishing itself from the Graveyard," Taro added, pulling his monster from his Duel Disk. "Your Battle Phase is over now… You can't attack with anything else." He looked over to Hikari. "You okay, Hikari?"

Hikari nodded gratefully. "Yeah," she said faintly. "I'm… I think I'm fine."

"You won't be." Hikari turned back to see Kilik grinning. He pointed to the face-down card in front of him. "Forgetting something, are we?" he asked. Justin watched the card warily as it flipped up, Taro paling as he realized what it was. "This card is called Urgent Tuning," Kilik explained, relishing every word that damned the three that opposed him. "I couldn't use it with your Bamboo Shoot around, but now that's gone, I'm free to play whatever I like!" The bamboo around him spontaneously caught fire, shards of the stuff flying about in the shockwave of the sudden flare. "And it lets me Synchro Summon in my own Battle Phase!"

"Synchro Summon?! In the Battle Phase?!" Hikari gasped, knowing one of them was about to lose this duel.

"I tune my my Level 3 Jurrac Ptera with my Level 3 Jurrac Dino!" Dino roared, dissolving to form three green rings that flew up into the sky, glowing brightly as they arranged themselves into a cylinder that Ptera flew inside, dissolving into three white stars of light.

Kilik grinned sadistically as he raised a hand to point at this display. "Crashing feet, blazing claws, rend apart your enemies to prove who is the true lord of the era!" There was a blinding flash, Hikari, Justin, amd Taro averting their eyes as something huge was born from the light. "Synchro Summon!" Kilik continued. "Level six, Jurrac Torvosaur!"

Emerging from the light was a huge orange and yellow dinosaur that looked very similar to a tyrannosaurus rex, but its head was longer, narrower, bright red eyes glowing hungrily as it opened its tooth-filled maw to roar loudly, the very sound shaking the landscape.

Jurrac Torvosaur, Level 6 Synchro, FIRE Dinosaur, 2500/1400

"Now… question is… Who should I attack with it?" Kilik asked himself, pacing back and forth as the other three looked on with pale, drawn faces. "Perhaps YOU," he mused, pointing at Justin, "for trying to stop me from attacking? No, no, your monster is still around… Perhaps this fellow over here? You seem to have a lot of effects I'd rather avoid. Attack redirection, negation… Not exactly my cup of tea, if you get me. And you… You shut down my Magic and Trap cards," he went on, turning to Hikari. "Not for very long, but it happened, and I don't want it to happen again…"

Hikari gulped. "Just… Just attack me!" she yelled desperately.

"Hikari!" Justin snapped, horrified.

"No, please! Attack me! Give Taro another chance, please!" Hikari fell to her knees, clutching at her cards, weeping openly now. "Just get it over with, please!" Taro watched her, wide-eyed, silent. "Just me, please, it's all I-"

"Shut up," Kilik drawled. "You've made up my mind already."

Hikari looked up hopefully. "You… you mean you'll-"

"Yeah," Kilik said nonchalantly, shrugging. "I mean, you want this guy to live, I get it… because he somehow has the best chance of turning this around and beating me."

Hikari's face fell. "No," she begged, desperately. "No, that's not what I-"

"Taro, was it?" Kilik called, grinning lazily as he pointed at the stricken Taro. "Jurrac Torvosaur, crush him! Primordial Power!"

"No!" cried Hikari as Torvosaur lumbered ahead, fire gushing from its mouth as it barreled straight for Taro. Taro screamed, turning to run across The Blight, sprinting for all he was worth.

"Help, Hikari, help me!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Help me, plea-" he was cut off as Jurrac Torvosaur caught up, slamming it's foot down on Taro's shoulders. Taro was forced to the ground, gasping in pain. Torvosaur raised its head, flames licking up from its jaws, and blasted him with a torrent of searing white flames.

Taro: 800 0

With a thunderous bang, a thick bolt of lightning came down to strike Taro where he lay as Torvosaur lifted its foot to return to its master. Taro let out one very piteous moan that was unheard over the roar of the thunder… and was gone.

Hikari covered her mouth in horror. "Taro…" she breathed sharply, tears rolling down her face.

"Aaaaah…" She turned at the contented sigh to see Kilik, chuckling now, his body crackling with electricity. "And to the victor go the spoils," he bragged, raising his Duel Disk to reveal his Life readout rising.

Kilik: 2000 2800

"It's not over yet," Kilik promised the two, turning to Justin. "When Torvosaur inflicts damage to an opponent, I can destroy any monster on the field, so long as that monster's attack power is less than or equal to the damage I inflicted." Justin preemptively lowered his hand towards his Duel Disk, knowing what was about to happen to the only monster they had left. "I destroy the 800 attack point Geomancer of the Ice Barrier!"

Torvosaur opened its mouth, another jet of fire blasting out to vaporize Justin's monster. Justin grunted in surprise as the fire engulfed him, his Life Points falling.

Justin: 1250 850

"I forgot to mention: You take damage equal to half the attack points of whatever I destroy," Kilik added, sneering. "I think that's enough for now… I'll play two cards face-down." He raised a hand, turning it over to gesture rudely at Justin. "Your move, Dead Meat."

Justin scowled, trembling. "How dare you," he began, raising his voice to a yell. "He was just a kid, just a scared-"

"AAAAH!" Justin stopped, turning around to see Willard flying back, crashing into the crater they had sheltered in, ash flying up in a cloud as his stout body crashed into it.

Willard: 400 0

"Willard!" yelled Justin and Gotam simultaneously. Willard struggled to sit up, looking up at Gotam apologetically.

"I… I'm sorry, Gotam," he began weakly, but a flash of lightning cut off anything else, and all that remained of Willard was a black mark upon the earth.

"Willard…" Gotam whispered, jaw trembling with repressed emotion. "You bastards killed him!" he roared, turning on the duelist who had dealt the finishing blow, a buff fellow wearing a leather jacket that was too big for him.

"Hey boss, I only got 400 off fatty! Mind if I join you?" he called out, his Life Points rising to 2200.

"Fuck off, Strindberg! These two are all mine, you know my rule!" Kilik turned back to the crumpled Hikari and the shaking Justin. "Now hurry up! I told you, I don't have all day!"

Justin slowly raised an arm to his Duel Disk, looking to Hikari with worried eyes. "Hikari… are you with me?"

She didn't reply. She just remained on her knees, hands to the ground, staring at it like it held the secret of life. "Hikari?" Justin asked again, growing scared now. "Hikari, please-"

Hikari looked up, distracted. "What? Can't… can't you hear that?" she asked, surprised.

Justin frowned, heart accelerating in concern. "Hikari… there's nothing to…" he trailed off, craning his ear as he did begin to hear something. A high-pitched whirring noise. Kilik had heard it too, turning his head left and right to try and figure out what it was. It was clearly mechanical, whatever it was. But what kind of machinery would be out here in The Blight?

"What the hell's going on over there?" Gotam called, wincing as one of his monsters was brushed aside like refuse. "What the hell are you guys-"

It was then that Justin caught sight of the approaching figure. Bigger than a person, and moving fast across the ash field, far faster than any one person. "Look!" he called, pointing. The group all turned to see the approaching object, and it wasn't long before they realized what it was.

"A D-Wheel?!" Kilik barked, looking suddenly afraid for the first time. "It's not a Cleaner, is it?"

"It's… it's the wrong color…" Hikari realized. "Cleaners are blue and white, that's blue and black…" This was true, and the figure riding the D-Wheel was clearly not a Cleaner; it was smaller, clothes darker than the uniform blue they all wore.

"This oughta be good," Kilik grumbled to himself. "Who the hell managed to get their hands on a D-Wheel in here?" He raised his Duel Disk in front of him, like a shield.

The D-Wheel suddenly turned to the side, decelerating sharply and coming to a halt at the edge of the crater, mere feet from Hikari and Justin. The figure on the motorcycle turned its helmeted head to take them all in, only their thin, tight mouth visible. It wore a baggy dark purple jacket, left sleeve gone, the ragged edge at the shoulder evidence of being torn free, a blue shirt beneath that bore a bright red symbol of a card upon the chest. Its pants were black, bearing many pockets, stretching down to end raggedly just above a sturdy pair of black boots, violet straps holding them onto the figure's feet. It gazed at them from behind a visor of tinted glass, helmet a battered Cleaner model. It was the same style and everything, like a knight's helmet that lacked the mouth guard, but the edges were far more rounded, the entire helmet somehow painted to look gray, with red lines tracing across its surface.

The D-Wheel it sat on bore a smooth countenance, a lack of edges everywhere on the blue-black ensemble. From the back of the seat issued a tall, backward leaning piece of metal, from which the two arms of the D-Wheel attached, the D-Wheeler's hands inside these to hold the handlebars within. It was clearly constructed by some parts from Cleaner D-Wheels, but different, worked on for long periods of time.

The figure reached up, pulling off its helmet to reveal the face of a boy, about Hikari's age, maybe seventeen or eighteen even. Escaping from the helmet, his cobalt blue hair fluttered in the wind that constantly blew across The Blight, highlighted by streaks of red that ran like pieces of straw throughout. He was a little over five and a half feet tall (it was a little hard to judge while he was on the D-Wheel), and of middling build, perhaps a little thin. His gray eyes crawled over all the people assembled, who were staring at him, waiting for who knew what. After taking them all in thoroughly, the eyes paused… and then closed halfway as the boy's face fell into an expression of tired annoyance.

"Okay, come on, guys," he said flatly, voice a touch reedy and considerably petulant. "You're picking on guys like THESE? They barely have enough Life Points to give a Kuriboh a challenge, lay off already, will ya?"

"Hey, fuck you, man!" Kilik yelled, startled and affronted by the bluntness this stranger had brought to the party. "We'll duel whoever we like, and it's none of your business!"

"That's a Jurrac monster, isn't it?" asked the boy, not even acknowledging anything had been said. Kilik fumed at being ignored. "I've heard of you, I think. Kirk, or something-"

"That's KILIK-"

"Thanks, will file that away," the boy assured him, raising a hand for silence, Kilik complying due to his falling into stammering anger. "Hey, are these guys giving you a hard time?" he asked, turning his attention to the stunned Gotam.

"Uh…" Gotam was taken aback. He quickly nodded, regaining his composure. "They… They already defeated our friends," he admitted, his frown returning with the remembrance of what he had just lost.

The D-Wheeler turned his head expectantly towards Kilik. "Got anything to say for yourself on that matter?" he asked shortly.

Kilik stammered out, "H-h-hey, all we're trying to do is survive in this shithole! Who do you think you are to judge us, huh? Who cares if we beat a couple people for Life Points, these guys weren't going to last long anyway!" He was furious now, glaring hard at the boy atop the D-Wheel.

The boy nodded. "I see, I see, I see… Okay, I think I have enough perspective to make a decision on the matter…" He raised a finger, pointing it at Kilik. "I really, really, REALLY don't like you very much…" He raised a leg over one side of his D-Wheel, stepping off it as he grabbed a round black metal slab from the console upon it, attaching it to his arm. With a clench of the fist, the Duel Disk kicked to life, a glowing purple blade of light appearing before it. This caught everyone's attention yet again. Only Cleaners had Duel Disks that were of any current model, certainly not regular Duelists like this boy. "And…" he went on, drawing five cards from the Deck within the disk, "I'm going to help these guys… Because of the aforementioned not liking you much." He raised the Duel Disk in front of him, glaring at the Duelist who had bested Willard. "You're first," he said coldly.

There was utter silence, and then Hikari asked, rather timidly, "Who ARE you?"

The D-Wheeler looked over his shoulder at her, smiling slightly for the first time. "The name's Yuichi," he told her. "Kawasaki Yuichi." He turned back to face the duelist Kilik had called Strindberg. "DUEL!"

Yuichi (3000) vs Strindberg (2200)

"He has 3000 Life Points…" Justin observed, amazed. "I haven't had Life Points that high in three months…"

"I summon Wastewalker Pitch in attack mode!" Strindberg began, reassurance entering his voice. This was a duel, something he was comfortable with. In front of him rose a monster that was a crouching bundle of shadows, fingers long and capped with thin, shiny claws.

Wastewalker Pitch, Level 4, DARK Fiend, 1400/500

"Wastewalker Pitch's monster effect! By discarding one Magic card, I summon another Wastewalker monster from my hand, but it's banished when it leaves the field! I discard my Painful Return card to summon the Tuner monster Wastewalker Blak!" This monster was similar to Pitch, but instead of crouching it was a tall, thin apparition, red eyes gleaming out from the dark and murky depths that made up its body.

Wastewalker Blak, Level 1 Tuner, DARK Fiend, 500/200

"I'm Tuning my Level 4 Wastewalker Pitch with my Level 1 Wastewalker Blak! Synchro Summon! Level 5, Wastewalker Shambler!" From the blast of light emerged a tentacle monstrosity, a zombie that stared slack-jawed at the unimpressed Yuichi, slimy tentacles protruding from its body like a cloak.

Wastewalker Shambler, Level 5 Synchro, DARK Zombie, 2100/600

"Wastewalker Shambler's effect!" Stringberg called out, discarding another card from his hand. "By discarding my Stop Defense card, I force you to send a card from your hand to the Graveyard! Hahahahaha!"

"Am I supposed to think that's going to hurt me?" asked Yuchi bluntly. Strindberg stopped laughing, looking in confusion at Yuichi as the boy discarded a card from his hand. "Last thing I care about is you laughing at how oh so clever you are," he muttered cynically. "Just get on with it already." Strindberg looked with uncertainty at Kilik, who was growling in annoyance.

"You know what, little Yuichi-kun?" Kilik asked, sneering. "You're really starting to piss me off-"

"Trust me, it's mutual," Yuichi assured him.

"… Oh, that does it, I was just going to send Sato at you as well, but now? Now I'M dueling you. We ALL are," Kilik seethed, raising his Duel Disk threateningly.

"Feel free," Yuichi said, smirking. "I'll even let you keep those monsters of yours if you like."

Kilik paused. Strindberg and Sato looked at their leader, clearly shocked. Sato cleared his throat. "Um, boss, not for nothin' but… I think this might be a trap."

"Oh, shut up!" Kilik barked, turning on his friend and shaking a fist irately. "There's THREE of us and we've ALL taken out punks better than this squirt on our own. Man up and get your ass over here," he snarled, walking towards Yuichi threateningly. "I don't care if you DO have a D-Wheel, or a better Duel Disk, they'll BOTH be mine when I wipe out and take all those Life Points of yours! Sato, you're up! DUEL!"

Yuichi(3000) vs Strindberg(2200)/Sato(1300)/Kilik(2800)

"Do you want my…" began Gotam, a little lost with his opponent now gone.

"No, but thank you," Yuichi assured him, watching Kilik's two monsters trample across the ash to join their owner as he squared up against a new opponent. "All of you stay back, I'll handle these guys."

"But… But we can help-" began Hikari worriedly, beginning to walk forward to stand by Yuichi.

"No, no, really, I got this," Yuichi assured her, a touch more forcefully this time. "You all just sit back and watch as I give these gentlemen a good thrashing, alright?"

"He thinks he'll thrash US?" asked Strindberg incredulously, confidence strengthened by his increased numbers. "The hell does he think he can do to THREE of us?"

"Speak for yourself, that Indian guy actually dropped my Life Points fairly low," gripped Sato. "I swear, Kilik, if I lose because of this, I'll-"

"You'll what? Get in my shoes with the rest of the ash here?" asked Kilik derisively. "This asshole stands no chance. Make your damn move, Sato."

"My turn. Draw!" Sato observed his cards before selecting one. "I summon my Weirwood Knight, in attack mode!" A great warrior clad in armor made entirely of thick oaken wood rose from the ground, an autumnal limb his lance.

Weirwood Knight, Level 4, EARTH Warrior, 1200/1400

"When this card is Normal Summoned, I can summon any Level 2 or lower Beast-Type monster from my hand! I summon the Tuner monster, Unicorn Familiar!" A small, gremlin-like creature now appeared, a long golden horn growing from its eyeless head.

Unicorn Familiar, Level 2 Tuner, LIGHT Beast, 0/1000

"I'm Tuning my Level 4 Weirwood Knight to my Level 2 Unicorn Familiar! Synchro Summon! Level six, Redwood Troll!" A scarlet ogre loomed up, towering over Yuichi and casting a shadow over him, the boy looking up into the single eye of the log-totting giant.

Redwood Troll, Level 6 Synchro, EARTH Beast-Warrior, 2300/2200

"Redwood Troll's monster effect!" proclaimed Sato. "Each turn, I can reveal a random card in my opponent's hand, and then place that card either on the top or bottom of that player's Deck!"

Redwood Troll opened its one eye wide, the sphere glowing with red light as one of the four cards Yuichi still held lit up with the same strange glow. Above Yuichi's head, a red-tinged version of the card appeared, much larger than in real life to allow Sato to read it.

"Black Horn of Heaven," he read, narrowing his eyes. "Counter Trap. Negate the Special Summon of any monster… Well, can't let you keep that. Place it on the bottom of your Deck!" Yuichi frowned, taking the card and sliding it underneath his deck inside the Duel Disk's casing.

"It doesn't look good…" Justin commented to Hikari. The two had walked over to Gotam, joining him in worriedly watching the ongoing duel. "He's lost two cards from his hand already, and he hasn't even had a turn yet!"

"I play one card face-down," Sato continued. "That ends my turn."

"Not quite, Sato," Kilik corrected, hitting a button on his Duel Disk. "I reveal a Trap card, Tuning Collector!" His trap flipped up, and it along with Redwood Troll and Wastewalker Shambler glowed with a red light. "When my opponents control 2 or more Synchro Monsters, I can Synchro Summon using a monster on my field and a monster in my Graveyard!"

"Grave Synchro?!" demanded Gotam. "This guy… he's way too powerful a Duelist!"

"At least there's one drawback to his Trap card," Justin chipped in. "Whatever monster Tuning Collector summons can't attack, and it's destroyed at the end of Kilik's next turn."

"I use the Jurrac Guaiba on my field, and the Jurrac Dino in my Graveyard!" Dino rose from a circle of purple light in the earth, splitting into the three green rings that Guiaba jumped into. "Blaze within a dying world, oh great monstrosity that crushes friend and foe alike! Synchro Summon! Level seven, Jurrac Magnosaur!"

What followed was a monster even larger than Redwood Troll, even larger than Jurrac Torvosaur. It towered above the field, long spiked tail blazing with white flame, raising a fire-wreathed head to roar a challenge at Yuichi.

Jurrac Magnosaur, Level 7 Synchro, FIRE Dinosaur, 2700/2200

"Wow, you just couldn't wait for my turn to finish up, huh?" asked Yuichi. "Had to show off."

Kilik did not burst out this time. This time he gave that malicious grin that he had when springing his Urgent Tuning Trap card. "You may think you're safe now, but when Magnosaur is Synchro Summoned, I destroy any other Jurrac monster I have, and that monster's attack power comes out of YOUR Life Points!"

"What?!" demanded Yuichi, legitimately taken aback. Magnosaur reached its mighty head down, clamping its jaws into the neck of Torvosaur. The beast howled in pain, but was swallowed up in fire, flowing up into the great dinosaur's mouth like a reverse waterfall of hell. Magnosaur then turned its head and opened fire (quite literally) on Yuichi.

Yuichi: 3000 500

"Yuichi!" Hikari yelled out, horrified to see their savior taking this much abuse. The fire flickered out, leaving Yuichi inside a small crater within the crater, smoke rising slowly from his body as he lowered the arms he had crossed to protect himself. He was breathing hard, gasping for air that scorched his lungs painfully.

Kilik clapped slowly, chuckling growing to an outright cackle. "Oh, you're so _precious_ , little Yuichi-kun," he said with glee, clapping his hands together harder. "You haven't even moved and we've reduced you to a mere 500 Life Points! Aren't we just the greatest, you little pile of-"

"Shut the hell up already," Yuichi interrupted, harshly. His eyes were no longer half-shut, lidded with his irritation. They were wide open now, eyebrows turned down as he glared viciously at Kilik. "You son of a _bitch_ ," he hissed, moving his hand to his Duel Disk. "Do you know who you're screwing with right now, Kilik? Do you?"

Kilik frowned now, bravado deflating as he was faced with this sudden transformation in the boy. Yuichi had been slouched, hand on a hip as he waited for his turn to come around. Now he stood crouched, free fist clenched as he glared at Kilik with fire in his eyes, teeth grinding against each other in his tight jaw. "I'll make sure you suffer for this, Kilik," Yuichi promised vehemently, moving his hand to his Duel Disk as he savagely drew a card from within.

 _You go ahead, kid,_ thought Sato, eyes flicking down to his face-down card. _You attack any of us, my Sakuretsu Armor Trap card will stop you dead in your tracks. It destroys any monster that attacks, so if you even try anything, you'll lose everything you have!_

Yuichi selected a card, throwing it down onto his Duel Disk blade, circuitry marks sparking within the hologram. "I summon Baleful Blackguard – Sepulchral Sword!" A mass of shadows coalesced on the ground in front of him, and from it rose a tall figure. It was insubstantial, as if a shadow had taken to its feet to walk with the one who bore it. It wore plates of black armor, floating atop its body strangely. Its most noticeable feature was a long sword of violet metal, clutched in its phantom fists. It stared out hollowly with the pale blue wisp lights it had for eyes, face unmoving and featureless.

Baleful Blackguard – Sepulchral Sword, Level 4, DARK Warrior, 1700/1100

Yuichi continued, sliding a card into the back of his Duel Disk. "Next, I use the power of my Rendering Tuning Magic card; it summons any Tuner monster currently in my hand. Of course," he interrupted himself, pulling a card from his hand as he looked irritably at Stringberg and Sato, "I'm only holding one; you guys have stripped me for _options_ a bit. I summon the Tuner monster Baleful Blackguard – Menace Mantle!"

From another lump of shadow rose a tattered piece of cloth, a black cape floating in midair. It too possessed shadow-stuff, but only barely, small glimpses of the darkness floating beneath the cloth, the same wisp-lights within.

Baleful Blackguard – Menace Mantle, Level 3 Tuner, DARK Warrior, 300/300

Yuichi closed his eyes, gesturing with a hand as Menace Mantle split into the green tuning rings. "I tune my level 4 Sepulchral Sword with the level 3 Menace Mantle!" Sepulchral Sword dissolved away, wisp-eyes splitting into four stars that drifted through the air, entering the glowing rings. "Rise from the shadows, strike back against those who hurt those you would protect! Rise and fight! Synchro Summon! Level seven! Baleful Blackguard – Vengeance Vanguard!"

With a flash of lightning in the violet sky above and a clap of thunder, his monsters disappeared in a flash of light. From out of the sky fell a spinning object, whirling through the air until it struck the ground, and the points of a black-handled gold trident sunk into the ash. From the contact point, darkness spread, pitch-black pooling about the trident head like a puddle. It grew larger and larger, reaching several feet in diameter.

And then from the shadows rose a hand. Coated in black armor filigreed in dingy silver, the claw-tipped gauntlet closed around the trident with a clash. The arm tensed, and the rest of the being followed. Completely covered in armor, all that could be seen of the powerful-looking monster beneath the imposing armor was a small window in the helmet. There floated, seething within the helmet like black flames, nothing but dark shadows, undetailed but for the burning blue flames that floated within the eye sockets. Pulling its trident free, the monster spun it one-handed, whirling it above its head with a flourish before slamming it down, the end of the handle striking ominously against the earth.

Baleful Blackguard – Vengeance Vanguard, Level 7 Synchro, DARK Warrior, 2400/1700

The three opponents had become more and more unnerved as the monster was summoned, its' frightening and slow appearance sending shivers up their spine, but at seeing its attack power, they relaxed. Kilik even sneered a bit again.

"You fuckin' brat," he said, shaking his head. "Your monster may be a bit more powerful than Redwood Troll and Wastewalker Shambler, but it's no match for my Jurrac Magnosaur!" As if to prove his point, Magnosaur bellowed loudly. Vengeance Vanguard didn't flinch.

Yuichi shrugged, hands in the air. "Yeah, I know. Not for much longer though. Haven't you guys heard of a monster effect before?" he asked sarcastically.

"What's Vengeance Vanguard's effect?" asked Strindberg guardedly.

"Each turn, I can target any one of your monsters," Yuichi explained, eyes moving from Wastewalker Shambler, to Redwood Troll, to Jurrac Magnosaur. "And that monster will lose 300 attack points for every time a monster's been sent to the Graveyard since your last Standby Phase for the rest of this turn."

"What the hell?" Sato asked, eyes widening. Kilik's were as well.

"Shit," he hissed, looking around at his fellows. "We've been sending so many monsters to the Graveyard I've forgotten how many!"

"Exactly," Yuichi agreed, as a portal of black shadow appeared above Vengeance Vanguard. From it floated-

"Menace Mantle?!" demanded Kilik. "The hell, you didn't play a card to revive it!"

"Don't worry," Yuichi assured Kilik as Menace Mantle descended towards Vengeance Vanguard. "That's just one of the aspects of my deck." Menace Mantle settled about Vengeance Vanguard's shoulders, reaching around to clasp in front of his armored neck.

"Is Menace Mantle… attached to Vengeance Vanguard now?" asked Justin curiously.

"I don't know," Hikari admitted. "I don't know what he's doing with it."

"Look!" Justin amended, pointing. "Vengeance Vanguard has more attack points now!" The others looked, and indeed Vengeance Vanguard's attack score was rising. It rose from 2400 to 2700.

"Baleful Blackguard Tuner monsters transfer their attack points to whatever monster they're used to Synchro Summon," Yuichi explained. Kilik snarled in irritation.

"Kilik, it's as strong as your monster now," Sato said worriedly. "It's tied for strongest monster on the field!"

"Thanks Sato, I can do math!" Kilik yelled.

"The monster I'm targeting…" Yuichi began, slowly raising a finger and pointing, "is your Jurras Magnosaur, Kilik!"

"Eh?" Kilik grunted incredulously. "The hell… I haven't had a Standby Phase yet, you idiot! Magnosaur won't lose any attack points!"

"Not to mention Magnosaur can't attack and will be destroyed at Kilik's End Phase anyway," Gotam added, concerned now. "It makes the least sense."

"You HAVE had a Standby Phase, Kilik," Yuichi disagreed. "Several, I wager. I think these guys here can attest to that. Or have you forgotten we're playing under the Battle Royale system here in The Blight?"

"What are…" Kilik began, before he visibly dropped his mouth open. It was almost comical. "It… It counts their monsters I destroyed?!" he demanded, pointing at Hikari and Justin.

"Their monsters, your monsters, my monsters, and the monsters of the ones you killed!" Yuichi clarified. Vengeance Vanguard raised its trident, which began to glow with a white light. "At this point, I activate the effect of Baleful Blackguard – Sepulchral Sword in my Graveyard!" A dark portal appeared yet again, and the sword wielded by Yuichi's monster rose from its depths.

"By banishing this monster that's been used as Synchro Material from the Graveyard, I can now cause ALL my opponents monsters to lose attack points when one would," he said, almost cut off by Kilik's incredulous yell. The sword suddenly jerked through the air, splitting halfway along the blade. The hilt and blade's remnants flew towards Redwood Troll, digging into its knee, the monster groaning in pain. The rest of the blade flew to slide into Shambler with a squelch, the monster shrieking, tentacles writhing as the sword glowed with a violet light.

As Vengeance Vanguards trident glowed, transparent images appeared around it. Two were immediately recognizable: They were the monsters Yuichi had used to Synchro Summon Vangaurd, Sepulchral Sword and Menace Mantle. Others were the monsters of Sato and Strindberg, floating through the air and glaring daggers at their owners. Even Kilik's own Dinosaurs were in there. Justin nodded with recognition as he saw his Geomancer in the mix, floating beside Hikaris Bamboo Shoot. With a pang Hikari noticed Taro's Necro Gardna, floating towards the front of the throng.

"I count nine times a monster has hit the Graveyard since your last turn started, Kilik," Yuichi stated emphatically. "That means all your monsters will be losing 2700 attack points!" The silhouette horde streamed forward, Necro Gardna leading the charge. The monsters all streamed together, flowing into one flow of bright blue light, the white hair of Taro's monster at its tip. The ray pierced Magnosaur, the beast freezing in place, fires dying down. The sword fragments buried in the monsters of Sato and Strindberg glowed with the same light, and the three watched in horror as their monsters' attack points flew down to zero.

Yuichi's frown slowly turned up into a smirk, satisfaction in his eyes as he appraised the three horrified opponents before him. "Not so fun for you out here now, is it?" he asked. "Not now I've brought you down to this level, where I can end your life in the space of a second-"

"Fuck you, kid!" Kilik roared. "This only lasts one turn, you smug fuck, and you can't take us all down!"

Yuichi raised a hand, eyes widening in false surprise. "Let me FINISH, Kilik, my god," he griped. "As I was saying… Remember how my Menace Mantle transferred its attack points to my Vanguard?"

Kilik looked over the Vanguard, taking in the tattered cape it now possessed while Sato and Strindberg exchanged fearful glances, wondering which of them would be taking what was essentially a direct attack. "Yeah, so?" Kilik asked.

"My Tuner monsters don't just transfer their attack points," Yuichi explained. "They transfer their effects as well. Their effects aren't worth much on such low-power monsters, but slap it on something like my Vanguard here… Menace Mantle has transferred the ability to attack every monster on the field once each!"

"What?!" the three yelled, all in unison. Justin, Hikari and Gotam were only a second behind, though they were shouting in mixtures of surprise and relief. Vengeance Vanguard swept its cape out behind it, eyes gleaming with light as it stared down the drained enemies.

"Mr. Yuichi, please, no-" began Strindberg.

"Shut up! Shut up!" yelled Kilik. "Or did you forget we have two face-down cards?" he asked, voice low enough to reach just to his companions. Sato remembered his Trap then, and sighed, knowing they were worrying for nothing. Vengeance Vanguard wouldn't last the turn.

"I enter the Battle Phase, and activate a Quick-Play Magic!" Yuichi called, playing the final card in his hand. "Fly, my Anti-Magic Arrows!" A flash of light in the sky could be seen, and a hail of arrows suddenly rained from the sky. With a flurry of _thocks_ , the arrows slammed into the set cards Sato and Kilik owned, sparks playing over the cards.

Kilik looked down in horror. "What the… What did you DO?!" he demanded, a touch hysterically.

"When activated at the start of the Battle Phase, these arrows stop my opponents from using and Magic OR Trap cards!" Yuichi yelled, raising a hand. Vengeance Vanguard, attack Wastewalker Shambler! Revenge Retaliate!"

"No, no!" Strindberg yelled, as Vanguard leaped forward, flying over the ashy ground and kicking up clouds of ash as it swung its trident, cleaving through Shambler, straight down the middle, black lightning exploding from the split. Strindberg screamed as the lightning exploded, throwing him back onto the ground behind him.

"Attack Redwood Troll! Revenge Retaliate!" Sato stepped back, unable to even speak as Vanguard darted like a shot to stab its trident into his Troll's large belly, the creature exploding, smoke engulfing Sato and hiding him from view.

Kilik stammered helplessly as he took step after step back, eyes wide, entire body tremoring with fright. Slowly, the head of Vengeance Vanguard turn to look at him, and he let out a wail of fear as he saw that the wisp-lights within its helmet were now a burning red.

"Look, Yuichi… I'm sorry… All of you!" he yelled, turning to call to the three who stood slack-jawed at the spectacle. "I'm sorry!" A flare of lightning on one side, and Strindberg was gone. "I, I promise I won't ever attack duelists again, I swear I won't!" A flash of lightning on the other side, no Sato. "Please, just… Let's just call the whole duel off, alright? You go one way, I go another? Deal?"

"You want me to let you go, huh?" asked Yuichi. He was clearly pissed at the suggestion. "You just stroll in here, beat the tar out of these guys, kill their friends?" He shook his head. "You have a lot of nerve-"

"PLEASE!" Kilik screamed, begging desperately as he fell to his knees, shoulders shaking as he tried to hold back tears of terror. "PLEASE, I'll do anything, just let me leave!"

Yuichi looked down at the supplicating form of Kilik, eyes hooded as he contemplated the wretched boy before him. He took a deep breath, sighing as he rolled his eyes. "Oh, fine," he muttered, turning away from Kilik to walk back towards his D-Wheel. "You can leave. Get the hell out of here.

Kilik collapsed on the ground, gasping with relief. "Oh, thank you, Yuichi," he yelled, over the cries of outrage from Justin and Gotam. "I swear, I'll change my ways, I'll-"

"Damn right you will," Yuichi interrupted, yelling harshly over his shoulder. "I'm making sure of that. You've never had your Life Points in the gutter, have you?" He jerked his thumb at the other three. "These guys live in fear every day that some asshole like you will come along, and take away their life… all that they have left in this god-forsaken place!"

He shook his head, walking to Kilik's kneeling form and bending down, looking him in his confused eyes. "I really think you could do… with walking a mile in their shoes."

Kilik went white. "No," he said simply, barely believing what he was hearing. "No, please, Yuichi, you said-"

"Vengeance Vanguard! Attack Jurrac Magnosaur!" Yuichi called to his monster, standing up and looking back to it. It had been standing perfectly still, awaiting orders till that moment. It spun its trident, leaping into the air, looking down on the diminished dinosaur and the screaming Kilik. "Revenge… Retaliate!"

With a final flourish, Vengeance Vanguard drew back its arm, and let the trident fly. It speared straight through the chest of Magnosaur. The beast didn't even roar, it just vanished. The trident kept going, and hit the rising Kilik in the chest in an explosion of black lightning. He let out a strangled roar of pain as he was sent flying back, tumbling over the ashy ground to come to a stop almost fifty feet away.

Strindberg: 2200 0

Sato: 1300 0

Kilik: 2800 100

"Better find a Life Point card before noon tomorrow!" Yuichi yelled back, Kilik gasping and coughing as he clutched at his chest, smoke rising from his body in great gouts. "I trust you can figure out why!" Vengeance Vanguard flickered out of existence, and Yuichi looked down at his Duel Disk to see the numbers on it flying up as the blade deactivated.

Yuichi: 500 4000

"I'm sorry you guys didn't manage to get any of their Life Points," he said casually to the remaining three as he walked back to his D-Wheel, fishing in one of his many pockets. "But this may help." He pulled a card from his pocket, sliding it into his Duel Disk. "Activate Rain of Mercy," he said before they could react, and a blue glow suffused the Duel Disks of all four that were assembled.

"A rare Life Point card…?" asked Gotam with wonder, looking down at his Duel Disk as his Life Points started to increase. "You want to use this… for us?"

"Don't mention it," Yuichi said simply. "I saved it for something exactly like this."

Gotam: 500 1500

Justin: 850 1850

Hikari: 800 1800

Yuichi: 4000 5000

"Thank… thank you so much," Hikari said, not sure what to say, feeling the thanks was inadequate.

"Well, so much for not mentioning it," Yuichi quipped, Hikari laughing nervously as he pointed at the figure of Kilik, staggering away towards the south. "He probably won't screw with you now he's lost his lackeys and has so little Life left, but just in case, you better take these." He reached into his pocket again, pulling out three more cards and tossing them to Justin, who caught them on reflex, almost dropping them in surprise.

"Are… are you sure?" he asked, Gotam peering over his shoulder with wide eyes to see Red Medicine, Goblin's Secret Remedy, and even Soul of the Pure. "I mean… what if you need these?"

"I have 5000 Life Points," Yuichi replied realistically. "I think you need them more than I do." He looked back at the crater, frowning. "How many did you lose?" he asked. His voice was less flat now, and he made eye contact with Gotam now, expression guarded, but sympathetic.

Gotam hung his head. "Two," he said sadly. "It's all my fault. We should have seen the bolts when they got hit by the noon damage-"

"Hey, hey, hey," Yuichi interrupted, raising a hand. "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine for not getting here a minute earlier. Perhaps I could have saved them too."

"You've done MORE than enough," Hikari assured him, reaching out to shake his hand. He took it awkwardly, gripping it with a very tilted wrist. "I'm Hikari," she said, deciding to ignore it. "These are Justin and Gotam. Thank you, for everything, really."

Yuichi avoided her eyes. "Er, no trouble, really, it wasn't. I'm sorry I can't give you more Life Point cards, I have to save what I have left, you know, emergencies, and if I find more guys like you."

He cleared his throat suddenly, turning back to his D-Wheel. "Which reminds me, I really should be going," he said brusquely, picking his helmet up off the dash of the bike and replacing his Duel Disk. "Places to be, you know."

Well, uh…" Hikari began. "You could…come with us…?" she asked, looking to Gotam for confirmation, which he gave with a swift nod. "I mean, if you don't want to be by yourself out here, Yuichi-senpai-"

"Senpai? Oh, GOD, don't call me that," Yuichi interrupted, looking up in alarm. "I can't be more than a year older than you. Uh, no, I don't really think I should. I mean, this thing only carries one, maybe two. Besides, you don't want me along."

"No, we kinda do," Justin assured him, chuckling.

Yuichi smiled humorlessly. "Right. But no, thanks. I'm good in a jam, terrible company, really, you don't want to walk for hours around me. Besides," he went on, sliding the helmet over his head as he sat on the D-Wheel again. "I've got shit to do."

"Like what?" asked Hikari curiously, as Yuichi twisted the throttle, kicking the bike into gear.

"Nothing much," Yuichi replied, placing a foot on the side petal. "I'm trying to find a way out of this place." He twisted the throttle again, and shot off, ash billowing up behind him in a plume as he drove away into the northwest.

 _Diary of Kawasaki Yuichi_

 _Day 193_

 _Fought that Kilik guy I wrote about back on Day 141. I'd only heard of the guy before, had a reputation for going around with his gang picking on weaker duelists to take what little Life Points they had. He'd already taken out two of them by the time I got there… If only I could have gotten the D-Wheel to go quicker, I could have saved them. Did get the other three out okay. Almost lost… for a shithead Kilik packs a hell of a punch. He's at just 100 Life now, may be gone by tomorrow. May be better if he was._

 _Three I saved seemed alright. Didn't seem like they knew anything, they're just trying to survive. At least they still seemed okay after seeing their friends vaporized in front of them. Everyone's tougher now. I remember back in the first few days when people didn't know what the hell was going on (still barely do, really). Nobody had any memories for shit and they were in the middle of a blasted hellhole. I know I've said this already in previous pages, but I don't know how complete this diary will be by the time this is all over. I'm missing the pages for days 82, 146 and 158, and of course I didn't write any pages from day 23 all the way to 67. Even this page may be gone eventually._

 _Hopefully I can reach this village by day after tomorrow. I really need to find a good map of The Blight, if one even exists, which I doubt. I might try to map it myself if the village proves it to be a dead end, though I don't know if it'll help; The Blight always looks the same wherever you go._

"Dr. Morgan?"

Aaron Morgan raised his attention from the pile of handwritten papers he was poring over, pen coming to rest in his dark, leathery hand. "Yes?" he asked, deep voice a touch wheezy as he sat back in his chair, pulling the reading glasses off his nose. His doctor had told him that sitting hunched in his chair was bad for his lungs, but it was old habit now; he had always hunkered over his work since the time he was in middle school in the States, and in over five decades that hadn't changed.

"The results from Day 193 are in. Four fatalities, all in the same scuffle."

"Really?" Morgan asked with interest, taking the offered stack of papers from the secretary, a woman of about thirty years of age who went by the name of Jan Elderberry, a slim woman with bobbed blonde hair and no time for anyone who would impede her job. "Been a while since we had them in those numbers. Ah, yes, Yamaguchi Kilik again? He HAS been active lately."

"Not for much longer, I think," Jan offered, pointing down the paper. "He managed to find a Life Point card, but he's still only at 300. He may not last the night."

Morgan squinted at the papers, donning his glasses once more. "Really? He's one of the more brutal mid-range duelists, who got him so low- Ah, yes, our Mr. Kawasaki."

"Responsible for the fatalities of 2398 and 4031," she added. "He let the others go. Didn't appreciate Kilik's tactics, from what I understand. You know how hard it is to get good audio of him now."

"Yes… Such a shame, too, he's such an interesting talker, our Mr. Kawasaki," he lamented, looking down the list. "What's this raise him to, do you reckon?"

Jan frowned a moment before what Morgan asked connected. "Oh, in the ranking? I should think somewhere between eighth and seventh in The Blight? He's the highest-ranked duelist in his current area, that's for certain."

"For such a splendid duelist, you think he would be higher."

"Well, he lets so many go without taking their Life Points away. I was surprised he let Kilik go at all. He took out his lackeys."

"I have a hypothesis," Morgan replied nonchalantly.

Jan looked up from the clock she was readjusting in its place on the mantle. "Really? Do tell."

He shook a finger, sliding his glasses back up his nose, straightening the sweater vest he wore over his shirt. "No, no, not until I'm certain. But I will say, if I'm right… that's quite interesting if he's one of our intended targets."

"I heard targets? Have you found one yet?" A new voice, coming from behind the two. One that was younger, raspier.

Morgan turned in his chair, smiling kindly at the boy in the doorway from the balcony. "Ah, Benga, so glad you could join us." He held up the paper, gesturing to Yuichi's name with his pen. "It's nothing definite, but I think we might have."

Benga stepped forward, taking the paper. He was small for his seventeen years, standing only at five feet four inches. His hair was wild standing out from his head in large spikes, a dark crimson shot through with shocks of white, his head resembling an explosion more than hair. He looked wild with his small, wiry body, face shrewd and sharp, eyebrows narrow over large eyes with beady black irises at their cores. He wore a loose tunic of teal, sky blue thread embroidered about the sleeves in intricate patterns, wearing this over brown pants.

"Kawasaki Yuichi…" he said to himself, grinning dangerously, sharp teeth glinting. As he examined the paper, the sleeve of his right arm slipped down his arm, exposing his forearm to the light coming through the large bay windows of the office. It revealed there a sort of birthmark, or possibly tattoo. It was the same scarlet as Benga's hair, traced perfectly upon his skin: A mark traced in the shape of a dragon's front claw.


	2. Chapter 2: Cleaning Time

**Chapter 2**

 **Cleaning Time**

 _A single pair of bright, gleaming blue eyes. Like a pair of candle flames they hovered unwavering in the darkness, staring straight at Yuichi, not human eyes, but strange, diamond-shaped ones that held only a single color within, no hint of a pupil or white in their brilliant blue. They did not blink. They did not shift their gaze. Just staring him down._

 _They always just stared at Yuichi, every time. He was floating in the shadows, nothing under his feet, just frozen in space across from the eyes. And like every other time, it played out exactly the same. The second he reached out, the space between the eyes glowed with a harsh red light. The eyes widened, gaining ferocity like none Yuichi had seen before as the red light grew brighter and brighter._

 _He raised his arms, covering his eyes as an earth-shaking roar ran through his entire body, the light swallowing him whole._

* * *

Yuichi jerked, the movement waking him from his uneasy sleep as he slipped down, his back rubbing uncomfortably against the side of his D-Wheel. He rubbed at his eyes, looking blearily around the wasteland. The sky was just beginning to brighten, indicating dawn had hit. The difference between day and night was subtle, but you could recognize it if you really looked. The sky was yellow today; a miserable yellow that coated the ashy wasteland in a light that made it appear the land was coated in piss. It wasn't doing wonders for his mood.

Yuichi stood, taking his tattered jacket from its position covering his body and slinging it on, his left arm easily poking out of the sleeveless side. He looked at it in distaste. He would have gotten rid of the jacket ages ago for the silly look he felt it gave him, but it was the only jacket he had to last through the cold Blight nights. That and other reasons.

After a few minutes spent eating some walnuts and stale bread, he climbed aboard his D-Wheel, revving the throttle experimentally to test if any ash had gotten into the engine overnight. Satisfied his ride was fine, he gunned it, shooting off into The Blight.

As he rolled across the wasteland, he tried to shake the dream from his head. He had it every few days, and just when it seemed to have drifted completely from his mind, it would turn back up again and disturb his sleep. He never dreamed about anything else, just that.

"I wish I could dream about wherever I was… before all this," he muttered to the empty air that was whirling past him. Like everyone else in The Blight, he had no memory of the time before. He was fortunate in that he could actually remember his last name. Some people didn't even have that. "Not just some stupid eyes."

There were some who didn't think they HAD existed before The Blight at all, that they had been created for this hellhole. Yuichi wasn't convinced about that. Not with the way they had all begun the first day within its seemingly infinite bounds…

* * *

 _Yuichi slowly swam into consciousness, his head heavy and slow as he struggled to open his heavy eyes. He felt drained, exhausted. He hadn't been this tired since… He didn't know. The tail end of his thought was seemingly there, but it drifted off before he could connect it._

 _He turned over, eyes squeezing open to see another person was sleeping next to him. She was a girl, maybe a bit older than he was, a tall pale one with dark black hair that had fallen across her face, its streak of royal purple splashing a bit of color over the drab gray ground they rested on._

 _That caught his attention. They appeared to be lying on a sandy surface, but the sand was gray. Almost like-_

" _Ash," he said with surprise, sitting up and pawing at the ash, the girl beside him stirring at his words. It was only then he saw what surrounded them, and his eyes widened in shock and confusion._

 _One, the sky was green. A neon green, even, with lightning roiling in electric lime clouds above the sharply contrasting landscape below, which was ashy and dead-looking. Second was the sheer volume of bodies around him. To either horizon stretched a veritable sea of people, clustered in groups of twenty or thirty. Many were asleep, but some were sitting up like him, looking around them in confusion, panicked voices beginning to rise as everyone took in the world around them, the one that would become all too familiar to them in the coming months. The people were a sharp contrast to the land, varied and coming in all shapes, sizes, and colors. And attached to each of their arms, Yuichi included, was a very old model of Kaiba Corp Duel Disk, each holding a complete deck._

 _The girl finally sat up, silver eyes flying open as she looked around them, looking as confused as Yuichi probably did right now. She turned to Yuichi, her face shifting into concern._

" _Are… are you okay?" she asked, reaching out and grabbing his hand. Yuichi barely registered it. He himself was starting to panic, like most of the people around him. His breath quickened, his head getting lighter as he tried in vain to process everything going on around him._

" _Hey… Hey, listen, my name's Houki. Are you gonna be okay?" The girl's steady voice slowly began to penetrate the haze of panic that covered Yuichi's mind. He turned to look at Houki, only able to get out his own name as he tried to recover. The looming elephant in the room was still very much dominating his thoughts: Where the hell were they?_

" _Greetings." The panicked roar that had built around them was drowned out by a very simply spoken, but very loud, salutation. Everyone quieted down almost instantly, cowed by the presence of the loud, phantom voice. Yuichi and Houki looked up at the Technicolor sky, where the voice had sounded from._

" _Is it… God?" someone close to them could be heard asking timidly._

" _Welcome," said the voice, cutting off any further discussion. It was deep, and male, dignified and crisp, the diction precise. "Welcome… to The Blight."_

" _Blight?" someone asked, their worried query echoed across the ocean of people._

" _Shut up, shut up, shut up." Yuichi looked to see that Houki was pursing her lips in irritation, looking up at the sky. "Let him TALK," she whispered fervently._

" _Surely you all are… a touch confused," the voice continued, almost as if it was speaking directly to Houki. "After all, you're in the middle of nowhere with nothing but Duel Disks and millions of people. No idea how you got here either, if things went smoothly."_

 _It was at this point Yuichi realized the voice was right; not only did he have no idea how he had gotten there… he had no memory of anything before waking up. The panic began to set in again, and he hyperventilated as the voice only made it worse._

" _You see, these people are with you for a reason. You are all equipped with your own personal Deck. You are here… to duel." Murmurs sounded out across the crowd, murmurs of surprise. "Now, this won't be dueling as you know it. Your Life Points will be carried with you across every duel you partake in. They will never be restored between duels, which will be in Battle Royale mode. Taking the Life of players via death blows and the various cards scattered across The Blight are the only ways to restore life. They carry effects that replenish lost Life Points, and are invaluable, I assure you. Because once your Life Points hit zero… you will die."_

 _The yelling started up again at that. They had been uneasy as this unusual duel style had been explained, but now they reacted with horror, people screaming as everyone scrambled to their feet, calling out in anger or fear._

" _Now, now, now," the voice continued, somehow still audible over the clamor. "Let me finish. For those thinking they can avoid conflict by not dueling, well… Let's say certain measures that DISCOURAGE that will be enforced." As he spoke, the clouds above began to thunder, growing louder and louder as emerald light built up within them. Finally with a deafening roar, a sheer flood of lightning erupted from the sky, falling to the earth and bathing the populace within it, homing straight for their Duel Disks. The cries suddenly hit an apex, shrieks of panic and fear as the light faded, most of the crowd fallen to the ground in shock, as their Life Point counters flew down, hitting 3900. The silence that followed was deafening._

" _100 points of damage will be inflicted on each player in The Blight at noon each day," the voice continued, more acerbic, angrier. "So hiding will do you no good. Your only chance is to fight! It's your only way out of The Blight!" A pause, and then the voice returned, more composed. "There are ten million of you within the boundaries of The Blight. You will remain there… until that number is reduced to ten."_

 _Horror streaked across the faces of everyone there. They looked around, distrust in their eyes as they saw everyone around them. Yuichi found himself instinctively gripping Houki's hand. He looked up to meet her gaze. The taller girl looked down at him, before nodding, reassuringly squeezing his hand as she raised her arm, Duel Disk at the ready, and her expression grim, prepared._

" _Again, only ten of you will leave The Blight alive… and only those ten will find out why," the voice continued. "I wish you all luck… you will need it."_

 _Silence reigned as the voice fell quiet. Everyone was looking shiftily at those around them, Duel Disks activating left and right as people stood in standoff. Houki's Duel Disk was activating as well. Yuichi looked around him at all the determined, angry faces around him, and he swallowed hard. He didn't even know what cards were in his deck! This was crazy!_

" _Hey." He was startled out of his stupor by Houki squeezing his hand hard. "When I say go, we run, okay?" she whispered. "We're in the middle of everyone, we're sunk if we try to fight our way out. Just try to get through with as few duels as you can manage, oka-"_

" _DUEL!" The first cry was heard, and thousands sounded out immediately after. Houki's scream was barely heard, but it kick-started Yuichi's legs as he dumbly ran after Houki, barely even registering the three who blocked them, Duel Disks out, his own disk activating as he drew his hand, barely aware of anything as chaos built higher and higher into utter insanity._

* * *

Yuichi leaned sideways off the D-Wheel, grabbing hold of the card sticking out of the ash and holding it up to get a good look at it. It was a Blue Medicine card, nothing to write home about, wherever THAT was. He considered just using it now, but decided there was little point. His Life was already at 4800. Best to save it for when it would count, especially as his store was dwindling after his encounter with the group Kilik had attacked the day before yesterday.

He was in a particularly crater-heavy portion of The Blight, finally seeing a visual difference from the sheer unending flatness he was used to. He weaved through the craters, keeping an eye out for any sign of movement. Izzie wasn't exactly helpful, but she had told him to keep an eye out for an area with a high number of craters towards the northwest. So long as what she considered northwest matched with the prevailing opinion, he should be fine.

He sighed heavily, not for the first time in the last few days. If Izzie had steered him wrong in this village-

His thoughts were interrupted by a distant shape rising from one of the craters several hundred feet away. Yuichi quickly killed his speed as he turned the D-Wheel sideways, pulling into a controlled skid to drift to a stop. It was a young man rising from the crater, blond-haired and older than him, sprinting out of the crater. He was running towards the wasteland to Yuichi's right, but he turned his head to see Yuichi and adjusted, running and waving his arms.

"Help!" he yelled. "Take me with you, please!"

Yuichi squinted through his visor, trying to get a glimpse of what was chasing the man. He didn't have to wait long. With a mighty roar as the man drew closer, another D-Wheel soared from the crater into the air. It was similar to Yuichi's, but sharper, crisper. Blue and white as opposed to blue and black.

"Oh, _shit,_ " Yuichi swore, watching as something shot from the figure atop the D-Wheel, zipping down towards the man and impacting on his left leg. Yuichi instantly kicked the D-Wheel back into drive, screwing the handle to get as much speed as he could as he shot past the man, who was struggling to get the clamp around his thigh removed.

He looked up as Yuichi passed him by, devastation in his face. Yuichi met his gaze for a second, then looked away in shame. The clamp was on him; best he could do now was get away, avoid getting hooked himself. He had already defeated enough Cleaners; he was not willing to risk dueling another.

He kept his speed as high as he dared as he continually checked over his shoulder for the sign of another D-Wheel. It wouldn't take long before the Cleaner dispatched the other duelist. In fact, as he had that thought, he heard the clap of thunder behind him, gritting his teeth as he imagined the duelist swallowed by lightning. He gritted his teeth, bending over the dash to try and coax the tiniest amount of speed possible out of the D-Wheel.

"Duelist located. Engaging conflict."

Yuichi jumped in surprise as a distorted, high-pitched robotic whine sounded in his ears, as if the Cleaner was in the helmet with him. He jerked the controls in his shock, the D-Wheel momentarily losing control. He struggled to right the wobbling cycle, looking over his shoulder to see the Cleaner was fast approaching, only a thousand feet behind him at most.

The Cleaner was an unnaturally thin figure, torso only a foot in circumference at its widest point. Its arms sprouted from spindly shoulders, funneling out to giant, three-fingered clamps. They reached out towards the fleeing Yuichi, the D-Wheel piloted without their control. Sprouting from the body of the cycle were four similar appendages, each one clanking open and shut loudly. A gray helmet enclosed a perfectly smooth, spherical head, which was featureless but for the number 398 emblazoned in green upon its lower right half, and a single dark red mechanical eye, staring blankly at Yuichi.

"Back off, trash can!" Yuichi yelled, a hint of desperation in his voice. "I didn't start anything, leave me alone!"

"Engaging duel," was the only reply he received. A loud clank was what followed. Yuichi looked behind him to see that one of the Cleaner's clamps had closed itself around the back left edge of his seat. He swore as he heard his Duel Disk activating, rising from the recesses of his dashboard and sparking.

"Cleaner penalty: Over-capacity Life," it chirped, the Life display falling from 4800 to 4000. Yushiro growled in frustration. In The Blight, Life could go as high as you could manage, but any Cleaner could reset it to 4000 if they roped you into a duel. The blade sparked on, a violet blade of energy sweeping out before him as a slot in the dealer on his wrist pulled back, exposing his deck. "Speed World Blight, activating," the disk continued, as dozens of lightning bolts suddenly rained from the sky around them, the inside of this manic strobe light their battleground.

He glared at the Cleaner, who had drawn level with him. "You'll be paying for every point you just took from me," he swore, pulling five cards from his deck and sliding them into his dealer. The Cleaner offered only one reply, one Yuichi spoke in unison:

"RIDING DUEL, ACCELERATION!"

 **Yuichi (4000) vs Cleaner 398 (4000)**

"The first turn will be mine." The Cleaner reached to pull a card from its hand. "Summoning Karakuri Soldier mdl 236 'Nisamu,' Attack Position," it said in its horrid, static-filled whine. From the air beside it, a humanoid figure composed entirely of gnarled wood held together by iron bands, a barrel held atop its back. Red eyes embedded in its wooden skull glowed to life, as the monster raised its spear protectively in front of it.

 **Karakuri Soldier mdl 236 "Nisamu", Level 4 EARTH, Machine, 1400/200**

"Activating Continuous Magic Card: Karakuri Anatomy." A scroll appeared from thin air now, looping through the air to coil around Nisamu. "Placing two reverse cards," the Cleaner continued, emotionlessly as two cards materialized before it briefly, before disappearing. "Turn end."

Yuichi looked briefly at his hand, then back at the Cleaner's Nisamu. He smiled with satisfaction. "Looks like preparing to fight you guys payed off," he called back to the Cleaner. Naturally, it didn't respond. Yuichi grimaced in annoyance, turning back to look ahead at the road formed by the walls of lightning that fell around them. "You guys suck… at least give me the trouble of talking to me while you try to kill me! Draw!"

* * *

"Dr. Morgan! We have Kawasaki Yuichi's location; One of the Cleaners found him."

Morgan rose from his office chair, pushing the sandwich he had been eating to the side as he straightened his tie, following after Jan as she ushered him down the bustling hallway, the lab-coated scientists parting like a wave for the pair as they turned into a massive room occupied by hundreds of computer monitors.

A scientist sat at each monitor, eyes flicking to and fro across the screens sluggishly. Despite their large numbers and the impressive setting, many of them didn't appear too invested in their work. They regularly turned to chat with someone to their side, discussing mundane topics and in general not paying their screens much mind. Morgan couldn't blame them. After six months and little interaction between them and those they monitored, boredom was understandable.

"Where is he?" he asked, looking up at one of the enormous, eight-foot monitors that lined the upper walls, looking at the view presented. He could see the D-Wheel Yuichi had fashioned for himself, the Cleaner's gaze turned to accommodate his view of the boy. A bar floated on the screen beside Yuichi's face, giving his Life Point count and the number of cards he was holding in his hand.

"Sector nineteen seventy-two. In the-"

"The northwest, yes," Morgan interrupted gently, raising a hand to halt Jan. "Isn't he in the neighborhood of that village where the Researchers set up shop?"

"Yes, Doctor," said one of the scientists at the monitor closest to them. "He's a few miles out from their location now. We think he might have been en route when this unit found him. Do you want me to have the Cleaner route him away from them?" he asked, sounding a little sour. "We have him clamped and our D-Wheel has more power, it's possible. God knows we don't need to give any numbers to _those_ people…"

Morgan raised a hand again, shaking his head. "No need, Tachibana," he assured the man. "I'm actually intrigued what he thinks he'll find there. Keep him on the same track. We'll see what Mr. Kawasaki makes of these Researchers."

* * *

"I summon Twin-Sword Marauder!" Yuichi threw down his first card, this one a human figure cloaked in purple cloth and thick armor, thick blades strapped to both his arms. His monster leveled his blades at the Cleaner, smaller daggers flipping out to form a three-pronged weapon on both limbs.

 **Twin-Sword Marauder, Level 4 DARK, Warrior, 1600/1000**

"Analyzing. Twin-Sword Marauder," the Cleaner spoke up, eye blinking briefly. "Capable of piercing damage and two attacks if it battles a Defense Position monster first."

"That's right, Mr. Clean," Yuichi said, not without a hint of smugness. "And I've learned enough from your Cleaner decks to know that all those Karakuri monsters you use," he called to his opponent, raising a hand to point at Nisamu, "have an ability that FORCES them to change their battle modes when they're attacked!" He clenched his pointing hand into a fist. "Nisamu's defense points are 200, and Twin-Sword Marauder's attack points are 1600! And I'll be able to attack twice! With this attack I'll knock you down to 1000 Life with one shot! Go, Twin-Sword Marauder, attack Nisamu!"

The Marauder pounced, swinging its right-hand blade down with swift precision. It cleaved straight through the spear Nisamu raised to defend itself like it was paper, the blade descending to score a massive gouge in the body of the monster. It reeled back from the impact, shattering into motes of light that flew back, battering at the body of the Cleaner as small lightning bolts reached out from the surrounding walls, playing over the pale contraption as its Life Points fell.

 **Cleaner 398: 4000 – 2600**

"And now the second attack! I-" Yuichi cut himself off as he saw that not all of Nisamu had vanished. The barrel it bore atop its back was still hanging in midair, spinning slowly in the absence of its carrier. "What gives, you riding junkyard?" he asked, eyeing the barrel with caution.

"Activating Nisamu's effect," was the droning reply. "When destroyed by battle, this monster allows the summoning of a Karakuri monster from one's deck, as long as a Level below 5 is held by the summoned monster." The Cleaner's deck ejected a card, which slid directly onto the D-Wheel's red holoblade. "Summoning Tuner Monster Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 'Ninishi,' Attack Position."

"Attack mode?!" Yuichi yelled as the barrel cracked open, the top flying off as a beflowered womanly figure rose from the barrel. The kimono and hair it bore were womanly, anyway. The wooden body and emotionless red eyes were not.

 **Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi", Level 3 Tuner, EARTH, Machine, 0/1900**

"In addition, the effect of Karakuri Anatomy activates with Nisamu switching to Defense Position," the Cleaner continued as Yuichi looked at the new monster with stunned silence, the Cleaner's scroll now floating about Ninishi, glowing with a pulsing golden aura. "When a Karakuri monster changes battle positions, this card gains one Karakuri Counter."

Yuichi looked back at his hand and Duel Disk. _If I attack Ninishi, it'll just change into defense mode,_ he thought to himself. _Twin-Sword Marauder can't beat its defense points of 1900… I'll have to get ready for his next turn, go on the defensive._

"I'll leave my Battle Phase," he began, reaching into his hand. "I'll play a card face-down, and then end my turn!"

* * *

"Heh. This is the kind of target you came up with?"

Morgan took a deep breath, sighing lightly. "Good afternoon, Benga," he said, not bothering to turn to acknowledge the raspy-voiced boy. "I assure you, you've seen very little of what Mr. Kawasaki here is capable of."

"And it looks like I won't be seeing any more after this next turn," was Benga's reply, the boy flopping into a chair at an unoccupied monitor, elbows on the desk beside the keyboard as he looked on at the duel playing out before them. He was restless, face set in an expression of boredom. But his eyes were sharp, and bright. "You've seen the Cleaners duel even more than I have, hell, you had a hand in designing their decks. This guy won't last the turn."

He yawned obnoxiously. "This kid has no chance of standing up to that. No way he's one of the Signers. He's a lost cause, is what he is."

The scientists around them shuffled uncomfortably away from Benga, eyeing the youth with a touch of unease. Morgan and Jan were the only ones that were unshaken by Benga's presence. Morgan smiled good-naturedly, leaning back in his chair and turning to face Benga.

"Well, I don't guess there's any harm in you watching the rest of the duel, Benga? See if I'm wrong?" He raised an eyebrow rakishly. The others awaited Benga's decision, nervously clutching their clipboards and papers to their chests and avoiding the restless gaze he sent drifting across the people assembled.

"Fine," he said sharply, standing from the chair and walking to the nearby wall, away from the screen, leaning against it to get a better look. "But this guy has nothing on the Cleaners. In fact… how bout we make this interesting?" His face split into a grin, one that was almost predatory.

"Interesting? Benga, what are you getting at?" Jan asked knowingly, her tone gently rebuking the boy in advance. But Benga heard the undertone, the edge that she was really feeling. He tilted his gaze towards her, sidelong.

"If that kid loses to the Cleaner," he said, pointing to the screen, "You let me into The Blight."

"Benga!" Jan snapped, the others hurriedly turning away to busy themselves with imaginary tasks. Jan was about to go on, but Morgan's hand went up, cutting her off.

"And what should happen if he wins, Benga?"

Benga shrugged. "I stop asking you to send me in there," he offered. "I'll behave, if he survives… which he won't," he finished, leering at the pair as they sized him up in kind, Jan's face pinched and angry, Morgan's thoughtful. After a few moments, he nodded wordlessly. Benga's grin widened, and he turned back to watch the duel with renewed interest.

Jan leaned down to speak in Morgan's ear quietly. "Dr. Morgan, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"I'm confident Yuichi will win," Morgan assured her under his breath. "Don't worry about Benga. He's not ready for The Blight, he's just eager." Jan shook her head, turning with Morgan to view the screen again as the duel continued.

* * *

"Draw. Switching Ninishi to defense mode and placing a second Karakuri Counter on Karakuri Anatomy." The scroll floating about Ninishi collapsed in on itself, disappearing in a hail of sparkles. "By sending this card with two Karakuri Counters on it to the Graveyard, two cards can be drawn," the Cleaner said, two cards sliding from the deck and being added to its hand.

"Summoning a second Karakuri Soldier Nisamu," it droned, a doppelganger of the monster Yuichi had previously destroyed appearing on the field beside Ninishi.

"So it's a Synchro Summon you're after, huh?" asked Yuichi balefully. "If I know you guys, you won't stop at one… you never do."

"Monster effect of Ninishi activates," the Cleaner answered. "An additional Karakuri monster can be summoned each turn. Summoning Tuner Monster Karakuri Watchdog mdl 313 'Saizan' in attack position."

"I knew it!" Yuichi snarled as a wooden dog bearing two large cannons atop its back pounced from the ash behind him, barking raucously as it chased after him.

 **Karakuri Watchdog mdl 313 "Saizan", Level 4 Tuner, EARTH, Machine, 600/1800**

"Tuning level 4 Karakuri Nisamu with Level 3 Karakuri Ninishi," the Cleaner went on, his kimono-wearing monster dissolving into a trio of green rings, Nisamu rising into the column they created. "Synchro Summoning Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 'Burei' in Attack Position."

With an explosion of light, Yuichi grimly watched an armor-clad figure emerge onto the Cleaner's field. It stood eight feet tall, constructed of wood, but with the clanking and turning of gears audible from inside its body. Armored like a samurai, it's head bore a helmet bearing a golden gear atop it, turning slowly as its eyes gazed out at Yuichi, their iron frames turning to and fro as it raised the red metal shield before it.

 **Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei", Level 7 Synchro, EARTH, Machine, 2600/1900**

"There's his Synchro Monster," Yuichi muttered, looking worriedly at his Life Point counter. He knew what was coming next, and it didn't look good for all the Life Points he had built up.

"Burei's monster effect: A Karakuri monster can be Special Summoned from the Deck. Special Summoning Karakuri Bushi mdl 6318 'Muzanichiha' in Attack Position." This one was a hat-wearing monster wielding a long samurai sword, running along the ground in a crouched battle stance.

 **Karakuri Bushi mdl 6318 "Muzanichiha", Level 4, EARTH, Machine, 1800/600**

"Activating set Continuous Trap, Limit Reverse," the Cleaner went on, a card flipping up as his Ninishi reappeared on the field. "A monster with 1000 Attack or less is summoned from the player's Graveyard. Tuning Muzanichiha with Ninishi. Synchro Summoning Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 'Burei' in Attack Position."

"Craaaaaap," Yushiro hissed as he watched a second Burei appear on the field, two powerful monsters staring him down. His grip on the D-Wheel handlebars tightened, and the image of a giant, dissolving bolt of lightning swallowing him whole swam through his head. He shook his head, trying to clear it of that sight.

"Another Muzanichiha is summoned by the effect of the second Karakuri Burei." The Cleaner continued, heedless of the mental battle he was having, anther monster appearing beside Saizan, which then vaporized, splitting into four tuning rings. "Tuning Muzanichiha with Saizan. Synchro Summoning Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X 'Bureido' in Attack Position."

Yuichi growled as a final third Karakuri shogun appeared to stare him down. This one was even bigger than the Bureis, standing nearly ten feet high. Armored in steel dyed red, its red coat flapped in the wind as it raised high two gleaming katanas, the points glimmering in the reflected light of the lightning around them.

 **Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido", Level 8 Synchro, EARTH, Machine, 2800/1700**

"Bureido's effect," the Cleaner went on monotonously, deck ejecting yet another monster. "A Karakuri can be summoned from the deck. Special Summoning a second Karakuri Saizan." The same dog he had used to make Bureido appeared on the field, once again bounding after Yuichi tirelessly. "Effects of Burei and Bureido. Using Burei, Saizan is switched to Defense Position. Bureido allows a card to be drawn once when a Karakuri monster changes battle positions. Using second Burei, Saizan is placed back in Attack Position."

Yuichi swallowed. His throat was dry. "Well then… Come on, then!" he yelled, his voice a little strangled. "Bring it on, you tin can!"

"Battle. Karakuri Saizan attacks Twin-Sword Marauder."

Saizan lunged forward, bark morphing into a howl as Marauder turned to face the incoming monster. It raised a sword, Saizan's teeth closing around it.

"When in Attack Position, Saizan cannot be destroyed by battle," the Cleaner said, Marauder trying vainly to cleave through the beast. "When battle damage is taken from battle involving Saizan, all Karakuri monsters have Attack and Defense Points increased by 800 for one turn."

"800, huh?" asked Yuichi as the attack power of the Cleaners monsters soared to 3400 and even 3600. He inhaled sharply as another Trap flipped up on the Cleaner's field.

"Continuous Trap: Clockwork Countdown," the Cleaner beeped. Gears started turning in Saizan loudly, enough that Yuichi could hear them now with the Burei. Saizan suddenly began sparking, and Yuichi winced as sparks began arcing over his own body, slumping down over his D-Wheel dash, fighting to regain control as he wobbled precariously.

He pushed himself up to look down at his Life Counter, seeing it fall by 200 points.

 **Cleaner 398: 2600 – 2800 – 1800**

 **Yuichi: 4000 – 3800.**

"Clockwork Countdown will inflict 200 damage to a player attacked by a Machine-Type monster," said the Cleaner, as Yuichi's Marauder finally shook Saizan off, throwing it to fall back behind the Cleaner's forces. "And the monster's owner will regain the same amount. Karakuri Shogun Burei attacks Twin-Sword Marauder and Clockwork Countdown activates."

Burei grabbed hold of its shield, gripping it by the sides as it approached Marauder, beginning to spark. Yuichi winced again as he began sparking as well, gritting his teeth through the pain as Burei slammed the bottom edge of its shield into Marauder's head. Yuichi's monster reeled as it's helmet was dented inward, shattering into fragments as Yuichi was thrown back by the shockwave, yelling out in pain as his D-Wheel began to spin out, the metal tube extending from the Cleaner's clamp lifting into the air, flexing to avoid being twisted around his out-of-control D-Wheel.

 **Cleaner 398: 1800 – 2000**

 **Yuichi: 3800 – 3600 – 1800**

"The second Burei attacks directly," the Cleaner declared, eyes pulsing as the second Burei raised a hand as it flew at Yuichi, the boy catching glimpses of it as it spun past his vision dozens of times.

He struggled to reach forward, fighting the force of his spin to reach his Duel Disk screen. "Activate Trap!" he yelled, finally landing his finger on the screen as a card flipped into existence between him and Burei. "Pinpoint Guard! Be revived, Twin-Sword Marauder!"

With a flash of purple light, Yuichi's fallen monster lunged from the card, swords crossed as Burei slammed into it, forming a wall between Yuichi and the attacking monster. Yuichi yanked at the handlebars of his D-Wheel, killing his spin and pulling him into a very unsteady forward direction. He gasped for breath, getting maybe two in before his body was awash with electricity, arcing from Burei to him as it pushed against Yuichi's monster.

"Clockwork Countdown activates," the Cleaner went on, as if nothing had happened. "200 damage is inflicted while the player recovers 200 Life Points."

"Big deal," Yuichi spat, finally righting his D-Wheel and keeping it from wobbling. "Monsters summoned by Pinpoint Guard can't be destroyed by battle! And my Marauder is in defense mode, so I won't lose any Life Points!"

"Negative," the Cleaner blipped. "Battle. Karakuri Shogun Bureido attacks Twin-Sword Marauder. Clockwork Countdown activates." Sparks once again flew around Yuichi, darts of pain shooting through him as Burei moved aside, Marauder thrown through the air by the sweeping blades of Bureido's swords.

 **Cleaner 398: 2000 – 2200 – 2400**

 **Yuichi: 1800 – 1600 – 1400**

"Setting two cards in reverse," the Cleaner said, as Yuichi righted himself in his D-Wheel seat, one eye shut with the pain coursing through his body. "Turn end."

Yuichi coughed, aches shooting through his chest. "You guys… really are a piece of work, you know that?" he asked his silent adversary.

* * *

Benga laughed aloud, throwing his head back as he applauded mockingly. "He endured the turn, did he?" he asked derisively. "He's lost a lot of life for that, though, eh, Morgan?" he asked pointedly, crossing his arms behind his head.

"He's not at zero Life yet, Benga," Morgan assured him. "He's still very much in this duel. After all… now he has a monster in play."

"A weak one without a chance of taking out anything on his field. Unless… Ah, I see." Benga narrowed his eyes at the screen. "You think he's going to go for a Synchro Summon as well."

"Indeed I do. And Mr. Kawasaki has a very interesting approach to how he utilizes Synchro Summoning, so take notes, Benga."

"Whaddaya mean by interesting?" asked Benga. Morgan only smiled, and Benga huffed in annoyance as he looked down at the dragon claw mark on his arm.

"Go on, then," he said to himself. "Prove you're worthy of one of these, ya wimp."

* * *

"My turn!" Yuichi declared, drawing from his deck. He turned the card around to see it was-

 _Menace Mantle!_ He looked over the Baleful Blackguard card, thoughts running through his head. _With this card,_ he thought, eyeing his crouching Marauder, _I can Synchro Summon Vengeance Vanguard._ He now turned to examine the Cleaner's field full of monsters. _Menace Mantle imparts the ability to attack every monster, and Vengeance Vanguard can decrease the attack power of an opponent's monster by 300 for every instance of a monster being placed in the Graveyard. With this, I can end the match right here!_

His eyes fell now to his D-Wheel screen, and he scowled. _But that asshole has two cards face-down… one of them could stop my attack from connecting, or power up his monsters! I can't take that chance…_ He looked over the cards in his hand, one Magic card catching his eye. _Hmmm… maybe this'll help me get what I need!_

"Magic card, Blackguard's Oath!" Yuichi declared, placing Menace Mantle into his hand as he did so, taking two more cards from there instead. "Now by discarding the Baleful Blackguard – Somber Shield Tuner monster from my hand, I can draw two cards!" He took a deep breath, placing his hand atop his deck. _Come on, I need something good,_ he thought quietly, before drawing two cards aggressively.

He turned the cards over, smiling with satisfaction as he saw what they were. "Activating Continuous Magic: Shadow Armory!" he declared, sliding the card into his disk.

"Next, I summon Baleful Blackguard – Menace Mantle!" From the sky before Yuichi, a long, ragged black cloak floated down, flapping in the wind as a pair of blue flaming eyes materialized within its empty hood.

 **Baleful Blackguard – Menace Mantle, Level 3 Tuner, DARK, Warrior, 300/300**

"Activate Magic card: Tuning Exchange," he continued, his Duel Disk glowing with a soft purple light. "This card lets me summon one Tuner monster from the Graveyard, so long as I lower the level of a monster of the same type by the level of that Tuner. I lower the level of Twin-Sword Marauder to 3. Be reborn, Baleful Blackguard – Somber Shield!"

Marauder threw out his chest as a glowing orb of white light flew from within his body, exploding into brilliance and fading to reveal a dark purple circular shield, two points of violet fire appearing along its upper border and tracing themselves down in intricate designs along its surface.

 **Baleful Blackguard – Somber Shield, Level 1 Tuner, DARK, Warrior, 100/100**

Yuichi smirked now. He wasn't running away from the Cleaner anymore, trying to survive against the repeated onslaughts. Now he could go on the offensive.

"At this moment, I use the effect of Shadow Armory!" Somber Shield's flames pulsed once, then twice, then died out. "Each turn, I can revoke a Blackguard's status as a Tuner, so now I can tune Twin-Sword Marauder and Somber Shield with Menace Mantle! Go!" Menace Mantle obeyed his command, glowing with harsh green light as it split into three rings, aligning horizontally in the air above Yuichi's head as Somber Shield and Marauder leapt between them, vanishing to leave behind four glowing orbs.

"Rise from the shadows," Yuichi chanted, eyes afire. "Strike back against those who hurt those you would protect! Rise and fight! Synchro Summon! Level seven, Baleful Blackguard –Vengeance Vanguard!"

Fading into existence above Yuichi, his monster bled into sight from deep shadow. Coated in black armor, silver tracing about its joints and fingers, burning twin points of blue flame spawned within its helmet as it spun its trident before turning to point it aggressively at the Cleaner.

 **Baleful Blackguard – Vengeance Vanguard, Level 7 Synchro, DARK, Warrior, 2400/1700**

"The effects of Menace Mantle and Somber Shield activate! Baleful Blackguard Tuner monsters all transfer effects and attack points to any Synchro Monster summoned with them." He chuckled. "Even if they aren't Tuners anymore, like Somber Shield. Vengeance Vanguard gains 400 attack points!" Materializing around Vanguard were Menace Mantle and Somber Shield, the Mantle settling around the warrior's shoulders, Vanguard's left arm being clamped on to by the shield, Vanguard's eyes glowing brighter as its Attack Points rose to 2800.

"Now… Vengeance Vanguard activates its effect!" Vanguard's trident began to glow dimly, flickering in and out as translucent images began to float about the air. Monsters that were very familiar to both Duelists. "One monster on the field loses 300 attack points for each time a monster was sent to a Graveyard since your last Standby Phase!"

Yuichi raised a hand, raising fingers as the figures he spoke of finally swam into clear view. "Since your last move, Karakuri Nisamu, Karakuri Saizan, and Menace Mantle have been sent to the Graveyard, and Karakuri Ninishi, Karakuri Muzanichiha, Twin-Sword Marauder, and Somber Shield have been sent to the Graveyard twice each!" The ghosts of all their monsters floated around Vanguard's trident, all compressing into one sphere of shadowy mist. "That's eleven instances of a monster hitting the Graveyard, and Karakuri Steel Shogun Bureido loses 3300 attack points!"

With sudden velocity, the sphere of ghosts blasted from the end of the trident, flying erratically through the air at Bureido. As it approached, an octagonal barrier of blue light flashed into existence in front of the shogun. The sphere impacted against it, flying apart into wispy fragments that quickly faded away.

"Dammit!" Yuichi yelled, slamming a fist on the dash. "What did you do?" he yelled back at the Cleaner, examining his screen to see a Trap image floating next to Bureido on his display.

"Skill Prisoner prevents a monster from being targeted by monster effects for a turn," the Cleaner beeped emotionlessly. "Vengeance Vanguard's effect is rendered null and void."

"Yeah, but my attacks aren't!" Yuichi flung out a hand, Vanguard pouncing on his command. "Vengeance Vanguard can attack all my opponent's monsters by the effect granted it by Menace Mantle! Go, Vanguard! Revenge Retaliate!" Eyes pulsing, Vanguard pulled its trident back, diving forwards and sweeping its weapon through the air. The Burei raised their shields, which crumpled under the onslaught like paper, the monsters exploding into motes of light that battered against the Cleaner's smooth white body.

 **Cleaner 398: 2400 – 2200 – 2000**

Vanguard dived for Saizan next, the dog jumping to and fro to try and avoid the probing prongs of the trident. "Saizan's monster effect activates," the Cleaner interjected. "Upon being attacked it switches to Defense Position." His dog monster finally stopped running, crouching with tail high as Vanguard's weapon found its mark, skewering the beast and blowing it to smithereens.

"Battle!" Yuichi continued, leveling a raised finger at Bureido. "Attack Steel Shogun Bureido! Revenge Retaliate!"

Bureido raised its blades to form an X, slashing them as Vanguard approached. But Vanguard's shield intercepted the blow, the blades glancing off, flying away through the air as Vanguard slammed them aside, thrusting its trident deep into the body of Bureido, the turning of gears suddenly cutting off as the monster exploded. From the smoke cloud, Vanguard loomed, slowly drifting back to fly by Yuichi's side.

"Baleful Blackguard – Somber Shield's effect!" Yuichi declared, pulling a card from his hand as the turn moved to his second Main Phase. "A monster Synchro Summoned with this card gains the ability to avoid being destroyed by battle once each turn, so Vanguard survives even though it and Bureido's attack points are equal! I set one card face-down! My turn is over!"

* * *

Benga was paying rapt attention to the duel now. Gone was the flippancy with which he had been observing before. He leaned forward now from his spot against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, eyes fixated on the screen.

"It's fascinating, isn't it?" asked Morgan, sounding smug. Benga made a noncommittal grunt. "Yuichi's Tuners impart their strengths upon the Synchro Monsters he possesses," Morgan went on, seemingly unbothered by Benga's lack of response. "Of course, you can only Synchro Summon with a single Tuner monster, but Yuichi has managed to use a loophole in Synchro Summoning by revoking his Tuners of their status as such."

"And he imparts multiple powerful effects on them by doing so," Benga finished, stepping forward and placing his hands at his waist. "All while fueling the effect of Vengeance Vanguard," he added, lowering a hand to a monitor and quickly browsing through the data available. He smirked at what he found.

"So I admit the guy has some good dueling tactics," he conceded, turning back to face Morgan, hands in the air as he shrugged. "You got me there. But this guy isn't a Signer."

"Oh?" asked Morgan, raising an eyebrow. "And how can you tell that?"

"Easy," Benga answered, reaching to a brown leather box attached at his belt. He pulled a card from within, flipping it around to reveal it to Morgan. "I just checked out all the data you have on Kawasaki Yuichi's Extra Deck, and you know what he's missing? One of _these._ " He grinned viciously, eyes locked challengingly on Morgan's own calm set. "If you're so convinced this guy is one of the Signers… where is his dragon?"

* * *

"Draw. Activating Magic Card Synchro Supremacy." The Cleaner was naturally completely unflapped by Yuichi's sudden reversal, making its move as if it was still in complete control and nothing had gone wrong. Yuichi glared at the Cleaner, eyes narrow and full of distrust.

 _You guys don't have to experience this like we do,_ his mind tossed out venomously. _Your Life will restore back to 4000 if you win. Mine won't. Stupid machine, you don't even realize how much I hate you!_

As if it was hearing his angry thoughts, the Cleaner's head tilted towards him, eye looking dead at his own. Yuichi looked away uncomfortably. "Synchro Supremacy activates when my opponent is the only one controlling a Synchro Monster," it said. "It summons one Synchro Monster from my Graveyard, with both Synchro Monsters having their effects negated. Summoning Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X 'Bureido' in Attack Position. Bureido and Vengeance Vanguard both have their effects negated."

The lightning around them suddenly spat several bolts out to strike a point in the air before the Cleaner. Even more coiled around Yuichi's Vanguard, and it slumped, its cloak coming loose and barely holding on to its armored collar, its shield sliding down its arm. Yuichi growled in irritation.

"Activating effect of Speed World Blight," the Cleaner went on. Yuichi felt his grip on his handlebars tighten. It was using a Speed Effect?!

"First Speed Effect: By paying 500 Life Points, one of the owned monsters will gain 500 Attack points for one turn. Bureido will have its Attack Power increased to 3300!" The Cleaner accelerated, Bureido following, the tube connecting it to its clamp drawing out longer and longer, from within the recesses of the D-Wheel's body. The walls of lightning stretching before them sparked louder and louder, small bolts flying out to strike the Cleaner, sending it into jitters in its seat. Bureido was awash with them as well, raising its blades in the air as its attack power began to rise.

"Oh, no you don't!" Yuichi yelled, accelerating himself. "I won't let you! Activate Trap, Shadow Spell!" His Trap flipped up from beneath Bureido's own feet, chains blasting from its surface and reaching up towards Bureido. "This card will prevent Bureido from attacking, and cause it to lose 700 attack points!"

"Counter Trap," the Cleaner responded, a card appearing in midair between Shadow Spell and its target, the chains rebounding off the card and shattering. "Karakuri Rout Formation. An opponent's Trap is negated and destroyed by banishing Karakuri Saizan from my Graveyard."

"No!" Yuichi could only watch as his Trap fizzled, Bureido standing tall with more than 3000 attack points.

 **Cleaner 398: 2000 – 1500**

"Battle! Bureido attacks Vengeance Vanguard!" Bureido crossed its swords, advancing quickly to slam into Vanguard. With a sickening rending of armor, its blades pierced through, lifting Vanguard into the air, the monster slumping onto their hilts. Yuichi looked up at the spectacle, face white and drawn.

"With the effect of Synchro Supremacy, Vengeance Vanguard loses its effect of avoiding being destroyed by battle," said the Cleaner. "In addition, at this moment the Continuous Trap Clockwork Countdown activates once again."

Bureido erupted in a corona of electric sparks, and as Yuichi's Vanguard exploded into shards of light, his monsters remains flew at his body, sparks of electricity coating them. Yuichi screamed in pain as his body was stabbed with hundreds of pinpricks of pain, like wasp stings pelting into his body at high velocity. He fell back in his D-Wheel, almost sliding off onto the ground below, only staying aboard by his weak grip on the handlebars. Breathing heavily, he struggled to sit upright, sweat running all over his body.

 **Yuichi: 1400 – 1200 – 700**

 **Cleaner 398: 1500 – 1700**

"Setting one reverse card, turn end."

Yuichi gasped for breath, trying to keep his vision from blurring. He took a hand from its handlebar, punching the dash repeatedly. His sight gradually cleared, but all that gave him was the view of the single Magic Card he had in his hand. He looked away from it at the lightning that coated their track. What was he supposed to do with just a single card against that Bureido? Now that Vengeance Vanguard had been defeated…

"There's nothing I can do," he whispered angrily, clenching his fists. There wasn't a single card in his deck that he could draw to turn this around. He had no monsters. "I lasted six months to go out like this?" he yelled. He raised his head to glare at the Cleaner.

"You son of a bitch," he spat. "Why the hell are you Cleaners here? Why does anybody have to die?!" He shouted this at the top of his lungs, eyes watering. He looked down at the dash, and saw that the hand there was shaking. He picked it up, pressing it to his chest to try and still it. "Why… why do I have to die?" he asked weakly.

He wasn't expecting a response, even though it didn't really answer his question.

"New entry: Third participant."

Yuichi looked down at his Duel Disk, surprised out of his desperation. He looked down at the Duel Disk screen to see three rectangles on the screen, each holding a picture and a Life Point count. The first two were of himself and the Cleaner. And the third…

"What the hell?" he asked, looking over his shoulder, the Cleaner doing likewise. Even now he could hear it: The sound of another approaching D-Wheel as it came into view.

The D-Wheel was huge. Huge and pure white. It was at least ten feet long, its seat half a foot higher than Yuichi's own. It was sleek, seemingly crafted from a single smooth piece of metal that coated the inner workings. Two spherical white pods connected to the body by thick rods held the arms of the figure upon the D-Wheel, and what a figure it was.

The rider was massive, only of modest height but built as wide as a wall, shoulders impossibly wide, forming a perfect contrast to the Cleaner's own narrow frame. Muscles bulged beneath the all-white riding suit, a suit lined with gleaming golden thread that matched the blade of the rider's Duel Disk, nestled in the dash and active as the rider drew five cards.

"Who… who are you?" Yuichi asked as the rider drew parallel with him on the left, the opposite side of the Cleaner. The rider turned his head, one coated entirely in an oblong golden helmet, face shielded by a tinted visor that he pointed at Yuichi.

"Not important," he said, with a resonating voice deeper than an ocean. "Someone who wants to see you through this duel. Is that good enough for you?"

Yuichi took a few seconds to respond, his surprise still evident in what the rider would be able to make of his expression through the face gap in his helmet. But he quickly regained his composure, nodding. "Sounds good to me."

"Very well then. DUEL!"

* * *

Morgan was no longer the picture of calm. He slammed his fist on the arm of his chair as he stood up, turning to yell across the room: "It's him! The unknown rider is interfering with the duel between Kawasaki and Cleaner 398! Focus the Cleaner on him now, have it devote all resources to taking him down. And get all Cleaners in the area to converge on him!"

Benga was standing below the screen now, gazing hungrily up at it. "Long time no see, you son of a bitch," he growled, his hand touching his right arm. "So you've survived since then, have you?"

"Jan!" Jan whirled at the sound of her name, looking nervous for the first time as Morgan stormed up to her. "How long before any other Cleaners can attack the rider? We have to get him away from Kawasaki as soon as possible."

Jan stammered, listening frantically to her earpiece. "Errrr… Not going to be any less than ten minutes, Doctor Morgan-"

"Damn!" he cursed, turning away from her and pacing back and forth frantically.

Benga laughed, cackling as he turned to watch the spectacle. "Lost your cool, Morgan? What's it matter, I told ya this asshole ain't a Signer. He's safe."

Morgan turned on Benga, looking down at the shorter boy, who was unperturbed by his anger. "Benga, we have no way of knowing that for sure!" he barked, pointing at the screen. "If Yuichi is indeed a Signer, then…" He paused, eyes fixed on the screen. His gaze shifted to Benga's arm, then back. His stormy expression changed to one of contemplation. The scientists and Jan all had stopped what they were doing, nervously awaiting what he would say next.

"If he is indeed… a Signer…" Morgan murmured, eliciting a frown of confusion from Benga. He nodded lightly. "This… this might actually prove if he is… Thank you, Benga," he said, relaxing his tensed body, turning to face the room.

"Everyone back to work," he called, the assembly rushing to do so. "We've got an opportunity, ladies and gentlemen…" He turned back to face the screen, worry creasing his face as Benga and Jan observed him with confused expressions. "Let's just hope Yuichi doesn't come off the worse for it," he murmured.

* * *

 **Yuichi (700) vs Cleaner 398 (1700) vs White Rider (4000)**

"He has a D-Wheel _and_ full Life?" Yuichi found himself whispering in surprise.

"My turn. Draw!" The rider barely even seemed to look at the card he had drawn before he made his move. "I summon White Warriors – Hail the Iron Hammer!" A toga-wearing man with green hair and cape appeared, taking a massive silver hammer in his grip and leveling it to point forward. Yuichi couldn't help getting nervous as he realized the rider could easily just attack him directly now and claim the remainder of his Life.

 **White Warriors – Hail the Iron Hammer, Level 4, LIGHT, Warrior, 1800/1600**

"Analyzing. White Warriors – Hail the Iron Hammer," the Cleaner began, whirring. "Capable of destroying a monster when it destroys another-"

"When a White Warriors monster is Normal Summoned," the rider went on, ignoring the analysis of the Cleaner, "I can summon this card from my hand. Come, Tuner Monster, White Warriors – Dew the Morning Knife!" This monster also bore a toga, though this one was a little closer cut and covered more of the monster's feminine body. A turquoise cape flapped in the wind as she drew a small, elegant dagger from her belt.

 **White Warriors – Dew the Morning Knife, Level 3 Tuner, LIGHT, Warrior, 800/300**

"I'm tuning my Level four Hail the Iron Hammer with my level three Dew the Morning Knife!" The rider clenched his hands into fists, throwing them out to his sides as his monsters began to rise in the air. "Sting of cold iron, blast through the wasteland! Pierce the hearts of the unworthy! Synchro Summon! White Warlord – Blizzard the Arctic Blade!"

His monster was similar to his other two, bearing a toga upon her body, slim but powerful. Her hair was a deep shade of blue, swooping back behind her for several feet in an elegant trail, shards of mottled ice the size of Yuichi's hand speckled throughout. A golden circlet rested atop it, a single sapphire resting in its center over sharp green eyes. Her long white cloak flew out behind her as she drew from thin air a long saber of gleaming metal, slashing it through the air as she gave out a sharp battle cry.

 **White Warlord – Blizzard the Arctic Blade, Level 7 Synchro, LIGHT, Warrior, 2500/1600**

"Wow," Yuichi breathed. "What a monster…" He lowered his gaze, face pensive. He turned to look at the rider. "I don't suppose you have a way for that thing to beat a monster with 2800 attack points, do you?" he asked pointedly.

"Battle! Blizzard the Arctic Blade, attack Steel Shogun Bureido!" Raising her sword high in the sky, the rider's monster let out a righteous scream of fury. The air around the three duelists suddenly grew cold and harsh, Yuichi shivering in the sudden freezing gale he found himself in the middle of. Blizzard's blade glowed harshly as she turned downward to descend, the saber aimed at Bureido's chest.

"Blizzard's effect," he called. "When she battles an opponent's monster, I banish one monster in their Graveyard! Then, half the banished monster's attack points are deducted from Bureido's! I banish Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 'Burei', bringing the attack power of Bureido to 1500!"

Ice crusted on the armor of Bureido, the scarlet overtaken by frozen water. Bureido shuddered, the clockwork within it slowing to a crawl as it fell to a knee. Blizzard took the opportunity, sweeping down and slicing her blade through Bureido's chest. Bureido erupted into a flaming explosion, Blizzard flying free from the fireball.

"Yes!" Yuichi yelled, raising a fist in the air. "Now his field is empty!" He readied a hand over his deck to draw. "Now all I have to do is draw a monster and you're _fucked!_ " he yelled at the Cleaner.

"Activate Trap, Damage Penalty." The smoke froze in midair, before being swept away into the Cleaner's latest Trap. Standing in the draining smoke cloud was Bureido, a giant rend in its chest, but otherwise standing strong. Yuichi balked at the sight.

"This card prevents the destruction of Bureido, while halving battle damage and inflicting 1000 points of damage," the Cleaner went on as the Trap turned to face the rider. The smoke suddenly reappeared, streaming out to slam into the rider, who threw up an arm against the onslaught.

 **Cleaner: 1700 – 1200**

 **White Rider: 4000 – 3000**

"I place two cards face-down," the rider said solemnly, two cards appearing on the ground in front of his D-Wheel before fading away. He hung his head, turning his visor to Yuichi. "I'm sorry," he said sadly. "I did all I could."

Yuichi looked down at his screen, considering things. "That may have helped…" he admitted. "You have a powerful monster on the field, I don't. It may go after you next turn." He looked at his hand. "I can hold on until then. Sound good?"

The rider nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

"Here goes then! Draw!" Yuichi turned the card over to see it was his Baleful Blackguard – Sepulchral Sword. _Cool! I can stop two attacks now!_ He paused, looking at his hand. _Or maybe I should save this…_ he thought, taking another look at the screen. He paused when he caught a glimpse of his own field. An idea swam into his head.

He laughed with relief, the rider tilting his head in confusion. "I have a plan," Yuichi declared, tossing his monster onto the Duel Disk. "And it's all thanks to you, my mysterious cohort! I summon Baleful Blackguard – Sepulchral Sword! Attack mode!"

A violet blade materialized in the air, a broadsword wielded by a cloud of shadows in the shape of a man.

 **Baleful Blackguard – Sepulchral Sword, Level 4, DARK, Warrior, 1700/1100**

"Attack mode? What happened to holding on until my turn?" the rider asked.

"I got a better idea," Yuichi responded simply. "Activating the effect of Shadow Armory!" The air around him distorted, darkening as a series of weapons and pieces of armor began to float around him in a circle, small candles floating between each piece unsupported.

"This card can also be sent to the Graveyard to summon a Baleful Blackguard Tuner monster from the Graveyard," Yuichi explained. "However, I can't summon a monster with a level higher than the number of Blackguards on my field. Currently, I have one," he went on, as Sepulchral Sword floated towards the circling armory, with a gauntlet, a breastplate, and a battered helmet passing by as it reached for a very familiar shield. "I summon the level one Somber Shield!" The shield flashed with bright violet flames, being reborn onto Yuichi's field as the remaining weaponry faded away.

"I'm tuning my level four Sepulchral Sword with my level one Somber Shield! Souls of the fallen, vanquished but not forgotten! Your powers passed on shall avenge you! Synchro Summon! Level five, Baleful Blackguard – Phantasmal Fighter!"

Yuichi's monster was a silver-armored warrior, black filigree traced over his enormous, cavernous breastplate. A helmet hid his face, but it did not stop the mane of black hair that escaped from beneath it. Most notable were the giant arms that sprouted from the giant pauldrons atop its breastplate: Arms of burning blue flames.

 **Baleful Blackguard – Phantasmal Fighter, Level 5 Synchro, DARK, Warrior, 2000/1900**

"Somber Shield's monster effect!" Yuichi declared. "Phantasmal Fighter gains 100 attack and can't be destroyed by battle once each turn! Phantasmal Fighter's monster effect!" Yuichi reached for his Duel Disk, a card ejecting from his Graveyard. He held it up to reveal it was his Vengeance Vanguard.

"By returning a Baleful Blackguard monster from my Graveyard to the deck, Phantasmal Fighter gains its effects for one turn!" The flames that made up Phantasmal Fighter's arms reared up, a fiery image of Vanguard appearing behind it to represent what effect it now held.

"I use the absorbed effect of Vanguard! Bureido now loses attack power equal to the number of times a monster has been placed in the Graveyard times 300 points! Vengeance Vanguard, Sepulchral Sword, Somber Shield, Hail the Iron Hammer, and Dew the Morning Knife have all been sent to the Graveyard since your last Standby Phase! Bureido loses 1500 attack!"

"Using the graveyard effect of Skill Prisoner," the Cleaner interjected. "By banishing this card, a monster is unaffected by monster effects of the opponent. Targeting Bureido."

"Trap activate!" The rider now spoke up, a trap flipping up to unleash a bolt of black energy that struck Bureido, coating it in a black shell around its body. "Nightmare Guard prevents an opponent's Magic or Trap cards from penetrating the shell this card places around a monster," the rider explained, not without some satisfaction, as Bureido tried vainly to cut the dark orb it resided in.

Yuichi smiled nervously. "Eh, thanks, guy," he said, a little put off by the struggles of Bureido. He returned his attention to the Cleaner. "Bureido's attack power decreases!" he yelled, the flaming visage of Vanguard tossing it's trident into the heart of the orb, a blazing weapon burying itself in Bureido's chest as it was weakened.

 _Bureido's attack is 1300,_ Yuichi thought, knowing what he had to do and not liking it one bit. _If I attack now, he'll be left at 400 Life…_ He scowled petulantly. "Son of a bitch," he muttered, before raising his voice and turning the throttle on his D-Wheel. "I activate a Speed Effect! I give up 500 Life Points for Phantasmal Fighter to gain 500 attack points! Phantasmal Fighter, attack now!" Lightning lanced through Yuichi, the boy grunting with effort as his monster was fed by that same lightning, swooping forward and winding back an arm, to deliver a massive punch to Bureido. The monster was blown through like wet paper, and it wasn't far to hit the one who rode behind it.

 **Cleaner 398: 1200 – 0**

 **Yuichi: 700 – 200 – 1400**

"I absorb all your Life that you had left!" Yuichi yelled, as the clamp that tethered him to the Cleaner released, flying back to the owner, which was suddenly exhibiting a lot of flashing lights, it's eye pulsing red over and over. "The duel is over!"

"Life at 0. Initiating self-destruct in ten, nine, eight…" the Cleaner's D-Wheel lost control, spinning out and flying to the side, the walls of lightning raising into the sky to hide up inside the clouds as the Cleaner shot under them. Yuichi and the rider accelerated, to get away from the giant fireball that issued from the Cleaner as it detonated. Even from this distance it hurt Yuichi's ears a bit.

After the explosion had stopped ringing in his ears, Yuichi took a deep breath, leaning back in his seat as the rider slowed to match his decreasing speed. Yuichi looked over to the giant, raising his visor as he nodded to him. "Hey!" he called over the sound of their engines. "Thanks."

"Happy to help," the rider said noncommittally. "Anyone in the Blight is an ally to me, as far as I'm concerned, barring a select few."

Yuichi raised his eyebrows. "You got enemies in here too, huh?" he asked, halfway curious. "I've ticked off a fair few people, how 'bout you, big guy? Who are you, anyway?"

The rider shrugged. "Oh, you know," he said casually, holding up his fist so his right upper arm faced towards Yuichi. "I'm just looking for a few people who don't need to be here anymore. Who don't need to be anywhere. It's a sort of… mission I've undertaken."

"A mission, huh?" asked Yuichi, a little puzzled. "Okay, um, that's cool, I guess, what exactly do you-"

He was interrupted by the rider's forearm glowing with a red light, a strange, long design that gleamed brightly in the dim light of the Blight. It coincided with a sudden, harsh flash of pain in his right forearm, with no apparent source. He let out a surprised shout, taking one hand from the controls of his D-Wheel and clamping it over the aching arm, the ache already starting to fade. "What the hell…?" he asked, doing a double take as he looked back to the strange arm.

The rider was staring directly at him now. He lowered his arm, shoving it back into the pod that contained his handlebar, then violently jerking his D-Wheel to the side, slamming it against Yuichi's. Yuichi yelled, pulling away as hard as he could, his smaller machine pushed a dozen feet away by the impact alone. "What the hell are you doing?!" he yelled, pulling ahead of the rider as he tried to slam into him again, drawing up behind him as the rider kept his sightline glued to Yuichi's D-Wheel.

"You! Signer!" the rider yelled, his voice no longer relaxed and friendly. His bass voice echoed with hatred and disdain. "I've been looking for you!"

"I dunno what you're talking about!" Yuichi yelled in frustration. "I've never even _met you_ before!" He accelerated to avoid another push by the rider. "Just let me go, please!"

"No!" the rider thundered, raising his arm again. "You aren't even worthy of this hell! Disappear!" His arm once again glowed with a thick red light, and Yuichi's arm was blasted with pain, as if he had thrust it into flames. Yuichi's eyes actually crossed momentarily, his body slumping as he howled with agony, trying to pilot the D-Wheel one-armed as his arm slumped in his handlebar casing.

He tried desperately to clear his blurring vision, but something kept clouding his sight, two objects hovering in the middle of them. They were two diamonds that refused to disappear, no, not diamonds, but eyes, the eyes from his dream. But… no, they weren't the same eyes. The ones from his dream were blue, but these were the deepest, darkest black.

* * *

"Get those Cleaners to Kawasaki's location _now_!" Morgan yelled, his shouting almost drawn out by a strangled cry from behind him. He whipped around to see Benga falling to his knees, hand clenched around his forearm, which was glowing with the same light as the rider's. "Benga!" Morgan ran to his side, but Benga shook his head as he started to kneel down, raising his head to reveal a face twisted with pain.

"I'm fine," he struggled to get out, one eye shutting in the effort of speaking. "Goddamn, that shit hurts!" he hissed, slumping back against the wall. Morgan nodded to Jan, who quickly knelt next to Benga, hand on his shoulder. Morgan looked over the shoulder of Tachibana, brow furrowed.

"How quickly till they reach him?" he asked simply. Tachibana shook his head.

"I don't know. We don't have trackers on either of their D-Wheels. Four minutes at most, I think." Morgan nodded wordlessly, standing and breathing deeply as he paced back and forth, waiting for new developments to be given to him.

* * *

"Trap Card!" The rider shouted, words barely even filtering into Yuichi's brain as he struggled to steer his flailing D-Wheel, teeth clenched in agony. "Nightmare Flaying!" Yuichi's head lolled to the side, and he saw now that the eyes floated in the air behind the approaching rider. As if seeing him too, a high-pitched shrieking roar sounded in his ears, the pain in his arm surging once again, causing him to yell loudly.

From the space the eyes occupied, a black tentacle lashed out, striking Phantasmal Fighter. His monster vaporized as the tentacle poised itself over Yuichi. "This trap destroys an opponent's monster that has battled this turn, then inflicts damage equal to half its attack power! Take 1300 damage!" The tentacle whipped down, striking Yuichi directly on his screaming arm.

The eyes pulsed in Yuichi's mind, and he turned his head, yowling in pain, his widened eyes seeing some _thing_ taking shape behind the rider, around the glaring black eyes. It was transparent, only barely visible around the edges. Something massive, enormous. The eyes slowly rose up above the mass, a slim trunk connecting them to the giant body below. Reaching a point in the air above Yuichi, he heard that high, shrieking roar again as the rider's arm glowed even brighter, as another red glare sparked in the corner of Yuichi's vision, but his eyes were glued to the shape.

 **Yuichi: 1400 – 100**

His vision started getting erratic again, shuddering to and fro like he was viewing a shaking camera view. He lowered his head to his dash, screaming as he tried to focus his eyes, D-Wheel wobbling dangerously. Through the jittering sight, he caught sight of his Life meter, reading only 100. He had no monsters and almost no life. He had to protect himself, that he knew.

Head remaining on the dash, he moved his right arm, the limb pulsing with agony in protest. He yelled loudly, fighting through it as he clumsily grabbed the card in his hand.

"Activate Magic card!" His shout morphed into words as he forced the card into his Duel Disk. "Fiend's Sanctuary! I summon a Metal Fiend Token!" He let his arm fall to the side, gasping for breath and yanking his listing D-Wheel back into as straight a line as he could, a being composed of metal spheres materializing between him and the rider. The rider's reflection stared out at him from the shiny surface, hook hands poised at its side.

"Metal Fiend Token? So you hide behind a monster that reflects battle damage?" the rider asked. "If you think that'll save you, you're wrong! My ultimate monster will sweep it and you aside! My tu-"

"It's my turn!" Before the duel disk alert of "New entry: Third participant" could even finish, the start of a new turn had been declared by the young man riding the D-Wheel that skidded up close to them, bouncing off the side of the rider's machine. He took a card from his hand, playing it quickly.

"I summon Grapple Blocker, and its effect seals Blizzard the Arctic Blade!" he yelled, Yuichi dimly aware of a humanoid form appearing and swallowing the rider's monster in its massive tentacles. "Turn end!"

"New entry: Fourth participant. New entry: Fifth participant. New entry: Sixth participant." The duel disk in Yuichi's D-Wheel announced these as more D-Wheels flanked the pair, a girl speaking up as she played a monster.

"I summon Raging Flame Sprite! Attack directly!" She turned to Yuichi, who was struggling to sit up, his arm dangling down by the side of the D-Wheel. "You're real close, just keep going!" she assured him, peeling off from him as he raised his eyes, seeing something looming in the distance. A wall, of some sort, just a blur of gray to him along with everything else around him.

Wait! There it was… a gap! Yuichi accelerated against his better judgment, his D-Wheel zigzagging to and fro, struggling to aim at the gap through his hazy sight.

"You won't get away!" He yelped as he felt his D-Wheel suddenly slow, looking over his shoulder to see the rider had clamped his enormous hand on the back of his D-Wheel seat, the glowing arm directly in Yuichi's face. He heard the shouting of the other duelists behind him, as they yelled frantically at each other to push him off somehow.

Yuichi struggled to speak, managing to squeeze out: "I got a mission too, buddy." He leaned forward, then jerked back with a yell of exertion. The back of his helmet slammed into the rider's fingers, and he let out a shout of pain himself. Yuichi allowed himself a weak smile. It felt good to return the favor.

His grip loosened, finally being jerked off as Yuichi accelerated again, back wheel skidding. He fought to keep straight, but his D-Wheel hit a bump, and was sent flying. He soared off, spinning through the air close to the ground, skidding through the gap in the wall, D-Wheel careening above him.

"Close the gate!" he heard before he hit the ground, slamming into the ashy ground and bouncing, rolling through the air before finally sliding to a stop at the base of… something, he couldn't tell. He dimly heard two crashing noises. One was his D-Wheel… was the other the gate he had heard about?

As his vision slowly darkened, a face swam into view, a boy crouching over him. About his age, black, about all he could tell… "Get him to David!" came a distant voice as the boy's mouth moved. Yuichi didn't hear anything else after that. All he could hear was the fading roar of the thing that had been behind that rider, all he could see were the fading black eyes, and the pulsing red light that slowly grew darker and darker, the red symbol that had been traced upon the rider's arm: The traced image of a dragon's head.

* * *

Dead silence. Everyone in the room was watching Morgan, who stood in the center of the room, repeatedly taking deep breaths, hands on his hips as he slumped into a seat.

Benga finally stopped tensing up, slumping on the floor as he tried to get back his breath as well. His face was red, irises small in his wide eyes. He struggled to rise up on all fours, Jan helping him up from the floor and into the chair Tachibana pushed over quietly. Benga's head hung over the chair's back, looking over at Morgan.

"Well?" he asked, voice ragged. "What now, Doc?"

Morgan raised his gaze to meet Benga's, sighing. "Well, Benga… I think we have ourselves a Signer."

* * *

 _Diary of Kawasaki Yuichi_

 _Day 196_

 _What the FUCK._

 _So much happened yesterday I can't explain. I fought a Cleaner, that was the easy part! This weird rider helped me out, but then his arm glowed and he was trying to kill me… my arm hurt like NOTHING I've ever felt before, I almost passed out getting to this village. And I saw the eyes from my dream, I think… but they were different, if that makes any sense? I dunno what the hell just happened._

 _The guy in charge here, guy called Sipho, told me when I woke up today that he'll tell me about the guy later this evening. Got knocked down to only 100 Life, but they used some of the Life Point cards I had left to patch me up by 800 before noon hit. Still, I hate losing that much Life to that damn Cleaner._

 _Hopefully Sipho can fill me in on what the hell happened to me on my way here to this village. I dunno what these "Researchers" are planning, but if rumors are true and it helps us escape, awesome, I don't care. Hopefully I can help these guys with what they're trying to do. I'll write later, when I have more info on that damn white rider. Yuichi here, signing off._


	3. Chapter 3: Wills and Ways

**Chapter 3**

 **Wills and Ways**

Benga's feet fell sharply on the floor, smacking against the carpet decisively as he stalked down the hallway. His face was brooding, twisted up in a bad-tempered scowl that could be seen a mile off. Scientists avoided looking him in the face, casually tilting up their heads to stare innocently at the ceiling.

Their behavior didn't go unnoticed to Benga. He snorted with derision as he passed them, shaking his head. _Bunch of wimps,_ he thought. _Morgan trusts these guys to manage The Blight? They couldn't run a goddamn gas station._

He stopped in front of a simple wooden door labeled with a plastic nameplate. _Dr. A. Morgan_ was inscribed in white lettering on the black plastic. Benga didn't bother knocking. He just pushed the door open and barged right in.

Morgan looked up from the stack of files he had before him on his desk, nodding in acceptance as his eyes fell on the boy who was yanking a chair up to his desk. "Good afternoon, Benga," he said wearily. "I had a feeling I could expect you today."

"We need to talk about what happened yesterday," Benga said coarsely, ignoring the greeting and turning a chair around, straddling it and leaning on the back. He held up his right arm, pulling back the sleeve of his tunic to expose the bare skin beneath, and the red lines that traced out a dragon's front claw upon his forearm. "Every time that son of a bitch shows up, my birthmark hurts like crazy. It's the worse pain I've ever felt." He lowered his arm, eyes locked on Morgan's own, his gaze narrowed. "You told me the mark would hurt a bit… but not like this. What the hell is wrong with that guy's birthmark?"

Morgan sighed, setting the file he held in his in-tray. This was going to be a long conversation. "I wish I could tell you, Benga. I don't have any more idea than you do."

"Bullshit!" Benga's words were accompanied by his fist slamming down on the desk, Morgan reaching out to lightly halt the stack of files as the impact caused the top several to begin to slide off. "You know everything that goes on in The Blight, if anyone knows who that guy is, it's you."

"All I know about him, is that he's a Signer, and a very unusual one at that. That and the fact that we didn't put him in there."

"I know that!" Benga slumped forward on the chair back. "You think I could forget that psycho fighting his way in here?" He grimaced as he recalled the events of the day, as Morgan turned to his computer monitor to pull up the security footage. He might as well have not bothered. The events played out in Benga's head in far more vivid detail than the cameras could provide.

* * *

" _Please, The Blight is full of wimps! All that's left are the people who can just run away better than anyone else by this point!" Benga was lounging in the balcony hammock, arms behind his head as he talked incessantly at Jan, who was looking through her tablet, scrolling through the list of individuals still in The Blight. She paused in her work, taking a deep breath to steel herself for the fight she saw coming._

 _"You're mistaken there, Benga, I assure you. The top seven in there right now have all managed to stay above full Life for almost a month, and they haven't done it by running away. The leader of the Deltas is even nearing ten thousand, with almost four thousand defeats to his name alone."_

 _Benga yawned obnoxiously, twirling a pen in his hand. "Big deal. The Deltas are wimps, anyway. So they got a lot of Life, like that means they're the best in there?" He pulled a card from his deck, appraising it with a predatory grin. "They'd lose all that life in a flash to this dragon."_

 _Jan shook her head. "You're never going to stop hounding me and Dr. Morgan about this, are you?"_

 _"It's better than sitting around here all day!" Benga protested, sitting up in the hammock and glaring moodily at her. "All I get to do is sit around this penthouse waiting for you guys to find Signers. Wouldn't it be a hell of a lot faster if I went in there?" he asked, holding up his arm. "I thought you all said the birthmarks resonated with each other. I could find them!"_

 _"There's no need to risk your safety, Benga," Jan assured him, placating. "We were very lucky to find you before we placed all these duelists in The Blight, there's really no need. Besides, we'll find the Signers, one way or the other, through this. Through the will of the Crimson Dragon."_

 _"Will of the Crimson Dragon my ass," Benga muttered, hopping off the hammock and walking back into the penthouse proper, pocketing his pen. "The Crimson Dragon sure is taking his sweet time. Four months, and how many Signers do we have to show for it?" He jerked his thumb at his own chest. "I'm still the only one in your corner."_

 _Jan shook her head. "You wouldn't be saying that if you really knew how tough The Blight can be, Benga." He grunted irritably, kicking a chair leg as he shoved his hands in his pockets. Jan's earpiece squawked as a loud thumping noise sounded from below them._

 _Benga looked down at the floor, surprised. "The heck was that?" he asked. Jan wasn't listening. Her hand was at her earpiece, concentrating. Her face was slowly turning pale._

 _"Benga," she said sharply, jumping up from her chair and beginning to gather all her things in her office folder. "Go back into your room and hide, alright? I'll be back once everything is okay." Her voice was quick, a frantic note behind it._

 _"Whaddaya mean?" asked Benga, lowering his eyebrows as Jan made for the door. "What's happening?"_

 _"Just hide!" she yelled, frazzled. She went to pull the door open, and suddenly Benga had ducked under her arm, shooting out into the hallway and kicking the door shut behind him. "BENGA!" she yelled, yanking the door open again as Benga darted into the elevator, punching the button for the lab floor. Jan's hand smacked against the elevator door as it slid shut, and she pulled it back with a curse, turning and making a beeline for the stairs._

 _Inside the elevator, Benga could hear the thumping noise again. It grew louder and louder, interspersed irregularly with loud crashes and the sound of breaking glass. And a high, regular whine that he recognized as a D-Wheel engine._

 _What the hell was a D-Wheel doing inside the building? He reached down into his pocket, pulling out the burnt-orange duel disk he held there and placing it on his arm, raising it in front of him as he stared directly at the doors, ready for whatever they opened to reveal._

 _What they revealed was chaos. The doors slid open to show the hallway that led to the lab, but it was in ruins. Great chunks of wall had been scored off onto the floor, the drywall swirling through the air to dim what few overhead lights hadn't been shattered. Several of the scientists were up against the walls, various injuries ranging from cuts to full on broken limbs._

 _Benga's eyes widened at the carnage. The hell had happened here? He felt a breeze coming into the elevator, noticing the heap of drywall that lay on the threshold, and he stepped out from within to see that the wall immediately beside him had been knocked inward, completely caved in by something from outside. He peered out the hole, spying the nearby highway, a half-cylinder of concrete and glass. Two D-Wheels were parked upon it, their drivers looking up at the hole in the building with bewilderment. Benga pulled his head back in, looking warily down the hall. Had someone managed to send a D-Wheel hurtling off the highway and into the building?_

 _Another loud crash from down the hallway reached his ears, and he took off at a run, sprinting right past the exit from the stairwell as Jan came running out of it._

 _"Benga, get back here- Oh, God." Jan staggered as she stopped, appalled by the carnage around her. "Is… Is everyone alright?" she asked frantically, Benga forgotten as she knelt by a man with a bleeding gash in his forehead._

 _Benga kept running, reaching the giant metal door to the lab, or what was left of it. The heavily reinforced metal door that was essentially impenetrable had simply been ripped out of the decidedly penetrable wall. It lay next to the empty doorway, a huge gouge scored in the floorboards from the half-ton block of steel._

 _He was getting a bit scared now. Whoever had broken into the lab clearly wasn't a normal human. Most normal people couldn't just destroy walls like they were nothing. Even he would have to be careful. He took a deep breath, peering around the doorframe and into the lab._

 _The lab was large, the far wall being only thirty feet from the door but the sides extending over fifty in each direction. Scientists lay scattered across the floor, prone and unmoving. Along the far wall were four giant metal circles, composed of blue steel clamped together to form the great rings that stood forty feet high, numbered one through four in sequence in brass plating at their tops. Normally, these Gates were nothing more than just empty rings, the concrete of the far wall showing through their empty cores. But one of them was now active._

 _Gate One's core was a mass of hazy white light, a harsh glow that was gradually glowing brighter, steam blasting off from seams in its plating. Benga's eyes widened. Gate One was never opened! The last time that Gate had been online was when Morgan had sent the Cleaners through!_

 _He turned his gaze now to the terminal next to the Gate, the one that was the master control for all its functions. His view was blocked by the giant of a man that stood before it, a huge fellow in white, with a golden helmet covering his head. He towered over the terminal, at least six and a half feet tall, the D-Wheel that was beside him even bigger, the sleek machine covered in drywall dust, shards of glass on the dash._

 _Benga appraised the D-Wheel. This D-Wheel was the one that had crashed through the wall, it had to be. The giant had driven that massive thing through the hall, and broken into the lab… only to activate a Gate that led to The Blight, of all places. Why?_

 _He saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Morgan was on the ground a dozen feet away, looking up at Benga with worried eyes. A long cut on the side of his head bled profusely as he gestured quietly for Benga to leave, his gaze flashing back to the occupied giant every few seconds._

 _Benga looked back at the towering man, considering it. He was very large, and Benga was small for his age to begin with. He wouldn't stand much of a chance in a fight. But if he could just hold the big lug off until security arrived…_

 _He made his decision. He stepped into the room, reaching out to slam his fist into the security button next to the door, the safety glass shattering under his hand as a loud whooping alarm blared through the building. The man jumped, whipping around from the terminal, his visor blocking any view of his face as he found Benga standing in the doorway, arms crossed, mouth twisted in a snarling smile._

 _"You're a big one, aren't ya?" Benga yelled over the alarm. His tone was mocking, disrespectful. Morgan let out a low groan from his spot on the floor, which he ignored. "Don't even know why I bothered callin' in the feds," Benga went on, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to point at the security button. "All you're doin' is fixin' to ship out to a wasteland. What does an asshole like you even want in The Blight?"_

 _The rider was quiet for a few moments before simply saying "I have people I must find there," and turning back to the terminal, eyes on the progress bar that indicated how close the gate was to full operational status. "I don't expect you to understand."_

 _Benga scowled as the man's back was turned on him. "Hey asshole! Don't ignore me, alright? Get the hell out, or else there won't be enough left of you for the feds to arrest, ya got me?"_

 _"My purpose is one you can't understand," the man responded calmly, turning and raising his right arm so his sleeved forearm faced Benga. "Only a select few truly understand my mission." On his raised arm appeared a red design in harsh light – a design Benga was very familiar with._

 _"What?!" he gasped, suddenly reaching down to his arm as it spiked with pain, his birthmark glowing in response._

 _"He's a… Signer?" Morgan gaped as the man stiffened, visor fixed on Benga._

 _"Signer!" he yelled, his deep voice echoing in the lab. "I've found one of you at last!" He stalked forward, his arm glowing even brighter as he reached an arm out towards Benga. The boy spasmed, eyes rolling back in his head as pain roiled inside his mark. He yelled, his shout ringing out as he fell to his knees, clutching his forearm to his chest and breathing deeply._

 _"I'll make your death quick," the giant promised, gripping Benga by the hair and effortlessly lifting him up, the boy's feet weakly kicking as he choked out another cry of pain. "Now, disappear." He drew back his arm, closing his hand into a massive fist as he lined it up with Benga's face._

 _"Fuck… you!" Benga forced out through gritted teeth, reaching up with effort and digging his nails into the gloved hands of the white rider. "You think you can take out a Signer? Guess again!" The pen he had pocketed was in his hand, and he drove it into the rider's own. The rider grunted in surprise, his grip relaxing for Benga to fall to the ground._

 _Benga scrambled to his feet, booking it across the room towards the Gate labeled with a copper number three. He jumped up beside it, grabbing onto the metal plates that constructed the great device as he crawled up it. He felt the impact of the rider's hand beneath his foot, and he fought to climb faster, struggling through his screaming arm as he neared the top of the ring, gasping for breath._

 _"Face your fate, Signer!" the rider shouted deafeningly. Benga winced as his arm screamed with pain again, and he slumped atop the Gate, holding on with his better hand as hard as he could as the rider grabbed hold of the Gate, yanking it to the side to sway, trying to dislodge Benga._

 _"Stop now, please!" The rider halted, head whipping around to see that Morgan was at the monitor, hand poised over the screen. The loading bar had filled to completion, but Morgan's hand was poised over it._

 _"Don't close that Gate," the rider snarled, stepping threateningly towards Morgan, who held up a hand._

 _"You're a Signer. Why are you attacking a fellow envoy of the Crimson Dragon?"_

 _"The legacy of the Crimson Dragon is not the greatness you seem to think it is," the rider spat. "Now leave the terminal… or you leave this building." The image of the broken wall ran through Benga's head, and he winced at the thought._

 _"Security is less than a minute away," Morgan said flatly. "It will take twenty seconds for the Gate to power down. How long do you think it'll take you to reach Benga? Can you kill him and get through the Gate, all before reinforcements arrive?"_

 _The rider paused for a moment, before turning to look up again at Benga. "I'll return for you soon, Signer!" he yelled, running to his D-Wheel. The second he took a step, Morgan slammed his finger onto the monitor, sprinting towards the far end of the room. Immediately the Gate began to shudder, its pale glowing light beginning to fade._

 _The rider jumped aboard the massive D-Wheel, revving it up with a loud roar. He gave Benga one last look, then punched the gas, flying into the light and from their sight._

* * *

Morgan shook his head as he watched the rider vanish from the security tapes on his screen. "Incredible. I don't know _why_ he wants to hunt down the other Signers so badly when he is one himself. It makes no sense."

"Who gives a shit?" Benga asked wearily, the mere memory of the event tiring him out. "He's one guy, the other three can't be psychos."

"It very much matters, Benga, even if he is by himself. The power of the Crimson Dragon is one that is strongest in unity. We need all five Signers if we can manage it," Morgan chided, reaching across his desk to pull a framed photograph towards him. It featured a stone tablet, several people clustered around the eight-foot monolith, a younger Morgan included. The tablet featured the design of a dragon, body arranged in a circular shape. He pointed to the left-hand side of the inscription, to one particular portion of the dragon.

"Besides… that man's mark is that of the Crimson Dragon's head. That alone is significant."

"Why the hell would it be?" Benga asked petulantly. "He's got a mark, we all have one, what does it matter what his is?"

"Because of the legends of the People of the Stars," Morgan responded patiently. "According to the relics we found, the owner of the head mark is traditionally the leader of the Signers… As their strongest."

"Strongest?" Benga asked harshly, grabbing the photo. His eyes fell on the head mark, and his furious amber eyes were reflected back at him in the picture's glass. "That son of a bitch is stronger than me?!" he demanded, the glass covering the picture shattering as it crashed against the wall. "Bullshit, Morgan, bullshit!"

* * *

"So you're Kawasaki Yuichi? Heard about you."

Yuichi looked away, a touch embarrassed. "Really? Good things, I hope?"

Sipho took a contemplative bite of the sandwich he was holding, green eyes thoughtful. "Mostly, yeah. Few of the guys here actually recognized you when you came, well, crashing in here. Said you're the reason they lasted long enough to get here."

"I help out where I can," Yuichi confessed, meekly. He observed Sipho as he walked ahead of him, guiding Yuichi through the collection of tin and wood sheds that made up the village the Researchers called home. Sipho was a very tall young man of Yuichi's own age, his black skin and curly hair causing sharp contrast with his striking green eyes. He was thin, with tight muscles in his arms that spoke of the surprising strength the wiry boy held. His clothes consisted of a dark green poncho over a black shirt, the poncho ill-fitting and overlarge, dandelion-yellow threads running across it tarnished by ash. His boots were tattered and worn, their black color faded to a modest gray.

What Yuichi noticed most, though, was his Duel Disk, specifically how the Life Counter on it read a mere 350.

"Is it normal for the boss to have the lowest life around here?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sipho waved a hand dismissively, swallowing the rest of his sandwich. "It's not a big deal," he assured him, his voice having an odd lilt to it, some accent Yuichi couldn't identify. "I haven't been outside the walls since I got here, I'm in no danger of losing a duel. Besides, Life Point cards here are rationed."

"Rationed that much, huh?"

"I gave my ration to someone else, alright?" Sipho asked, a touch defensively. "I don't need it, so I only use a Life Point card when I absolutely have to. The scouts need them more than me. My ration for yesterday actually went to Thomas, he was one of the ones who found you."

"About that," Yuichi interrupted, as the pair began climbing the steps towards one of the ramshackle towers that lined the walls. "You said you knew a few things about that rider. Care to share?"

Sipho nodded, sighing. "He's… an odd duck, that one," he admitted, reaching the top ahead of Yuichi and peering out one of the openings in the tower at the expansive wasteland before them. "He's not like us, that's for sure. His Life is like the Cleaners, it always resets to full after every duel. He doesn't seem affected by the noon damage, either."

"How the hell is that possible?" Yuichi leaned on the railing that spanned the tower, eyes turned expectantly to Sipho, who shrugged.

"No idea. We've asked him before, and he won't tell us. He's generally pretty nice to us, though. He's helped plenty of the people here on that last stretch, avoid the Cleaners, that kind of thing."

Yuichi frowned. "Friendly, huh? And tell me… has he ever had his arm glow and started freaking out and trying to kill anyone before?"

Sipho sighed irritably. "Yeah, he has, actually. Just one, besides you."

"Who?" Yuichi asked, standing to look out at the complex. "I'd like to talk to them, see if we can figure out why he's after us."

Sipho jerked a thumb to face his chest. "Why do you think I never leave the walls?"

* * *

Jan eased the door open, peering in to see Benga slumped in his chair, intently watching the tablet he had propped up in front of him, eyes locked on the screen. The light illuminated his face in the darkness, his amber gaze piercing the video that was playing.

"You're going to ruin your eyes in this dark, Benga," she chided. The boy didn't react, not taking his eyes from the screen. Jan realized that it was footage of the white rider as he entered Yuichi's duel with the Cleaner, and she pursed her lips thoughtfully.

"Benga… are you alright?" she asked, taking a seat on the edge of Benga's bed. "You've been real quiet today, not like usual."

Benga frowned, not looking at her. "I'm fine," he said flatly. "Leave me alone, Jan."

She took a deep breath, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Benga… Listen, I know you want to help, but… we just don't want to see you get hurt, alright?" No response. "We know you're capable, and we're glad we have you as a Signer, but fact is… The Blight is dangerous, and, you're just very reckless, we don't-"

"Piss off, Jan," Benga replied emptily. "I'm busy."

Jan looked imploringly at Benga, then sighed, standing slowly. "Benga… you're too important to risk. You should be proud of that," she assured him, turning and exiting his room, shutting the door behind her softly.

Benga paused his video, staring at the white rider on his screen as he Synchro Summoned his White Warlord. "Too important… I'm not doing anything here!" He swore as he swatted the tablet, sending it flying to land on his bed.

* * *

"My arm started hurting just like yours did. He started chasing me down and I barely made it in here alive." Sipho hauled open the door to the dilapidated garage, revealing Yuichi's D-Wheel among a fleet of others. "He's been hanging out in the area ever since, for almost two months, now. He leaves everyone else alone, but he comes straight for me whenever I try to go outside."

Yuichi ran his hands over the D-Wheel, checking it over. "You all took real good care of it," he admitted, looking up at Sipho. "I can't even tell this thing crashed."

" _We_ kept it in good condition? I've never seen a D-Wheel looked this good that didn't have a Cleaner sat on top of it." Sipho slapped his hand on one of the D-Wheels beside Yuichi's. "Cleaners explode when they lose, we only get these things in pieces and have to make due. How did you keep yours in one piece?"

Yuichi looked up to the D-Wheel Sipho was indicating. It was completely lacking a frame, the bare essentials exposed for all to see, engine and all. It was small, dirty, and he wrinkled his nose at it. "It helped that the Cleaner I took mine from wasn't attached to it at the time," he admitted.

Sipho raised his eyebrows, nodding. "Alright. Not bad, Kawasaki. I like your style."

Yuichi stood, leaning over the D-Wheel. "So he just pounces on you whenever you try to leave?" he asked.

"Yep. Nobody else, just me. He stopped dueling the others once you got through the gate." He took a seat at a rickety desk that held an ancient computer terminal. "He won't tell us why, either, just something about 'the Crimson Dragon's retribution.'" He tapped a button on the keyboard, sending the computer into its boot-up sequence.

"Crimson Dragon?" asked Yuichi, snorting. "He's a friggin' loon."

"I don't know." Sipho spoke absently, half-focused on the conversation and his computer. "Whatever's got him riled up at us, there's a reason. He managed to cause us both pain without touching us. I even started feeling some when you were coming in here. Besides," he went on, an emerald eye sliding over to look pointedly at him. "I think we both saw that _thing_ he had with him."

Yuichi's mind flew back to that strange shape that the rider had behind him during the duel. That massive image that wasn't quite visible, and that pair of gaunt eyes glaring in the middle of his gaze. He shuddered, looking away. "I… I don't know what that was. Maybe he's like the Cleaners. Something to screw with us…"

"Two guys out of ten million?" asked Sipho doubtfully. "Sure, sounds about right."

"Well, then, you explain it," Yuichi protested.

"I can't. So I'll just stick to explaining what I can explain." Sipho picked up a pencil, tapping it on the screen. "You mentioned you came here to see if you could help us with our research. You know what this is?"

Yuichi squinted at the dull, pixelated screen. "No, I don't. Looks like a ring, though."

"It's a Momentum reactor," Sipho explained. "You have one in your D-Wheel and Duel Disk. All of us do. It lets them run, also powers the Solid Vision." He held up his Duel Disk. "Though the reactors in ours are overclocked, which is why every bit of damage hits you like a bus."

"Really?" asked Yuichi, reaching down to his D-Wheel and running his hand over the Duel Disk embedded in its console, thumb running over the Life readout of 800. "Any way to reverse the overclock?"

"Not without the reactors blowing up in our faces," Sipho confessed ruefully. "We don't have the kind of tools here for that kind of job. Can't cut the link between Disk and Duelist either."

Yuichi nodded. "Yeah. Even when I abandoned my old Duel Disk and started using the one in the D-Wheel, my Life just switched over to this one."

"Exactly!" Sipho exclaimed crossly. "We're irreversibly connected with no way to cut the cord. The Blight is just too weird for us to figure out how it works with the facilities we have."

"Speaking of, how did you get these facilities? Buildings aren't exactly common around here."

"They were here when the first couple Researchers found them," Sipho explained. "They came upon this place three months back. Build the walls when the Cleaners came a few days later. Most of this stuff was already here. Someone cleared out and left all the scrap. I showed up about a month later, somehow ended up in charge of the whole mess."

Yuichi let out a sigh as he pulled up a stool to sit beside Sipho, leaning on his knees as he looked back at the screen. "So okay. Momentum reactor. Izzie told me you guys had maybe figured out how to get out of this hellhole, is this how?"

Sipho blinked. "Izzie? Who's Izzie?"

Yuichi rolled his eyes, looking away from Sipho. "Well, her real name is Elizaveta…"

Sipho scowled. "As in Elizaveta Sakharov?" he asked indignantly. "What the hell does _she_ know about what we're up to?"

Yuichi threw up his hands defensively. "I dunno, that's just what she told me."

"You associate with her?" Sipho asked, sounding as if he was accusing a small child of wrongdoing. Yuichi shrugged, eliciting a scoff from Sipho.

"Look, she's a bit of a bitch, I realize-"

"She's caused the deaths of people I know, Kawasaki!" Sipho interrupted shortly, turning back to his computer. "She's an opportunist waiting to stab you in the back."

"I know, but, Izzie's reliable. She got me here, didn't she? Besides, if it would make you feel better, last I saw her she was heading _away_ from this place."

"The reactors inside the D-Wheels are the only sources of power in The Blight, outside of the lightning strikes," Sipho continued forcefully, ignoring Yuichi. "They're also the most powerful, but we don't have a way to actually control them. But if we could, we would have a hell of a lot of power with all the D-Wheels that are in The Blight, Duel Disks as well, even with all the people who died to those like Sakharov." These last words were said with particular venom.

Yuichi sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Look, I'm not saying Izzie and I are friends are anything, alright?"

"You call her by her nickname," Sipho responded.

"It's what she goes by! All I did was pay her for any information she had on escaping The Blight, and she pointed me here. That's the only time I've ever given her a thing, alright?"

Sipho noticeably relaxed. "Well… I guess that's alright," he said begrudgingly. "I don't want her anywhere near here. Not with the delicacy of what we're going to be attempting."

"Which is?"

Sipho gestured at the ten D-Wheels that sat within the garage. "The Momentum reactors have a lot of power in them, power we can't control finely. But if we can use them all in one big burst… They could just break us out."

Yuichi frowned, squinting at Sipho's screen. "Break us out? What do you mean?"

A diagram of a circle popped up on the screen at the flick of Sipho's finger, several bullet points dotted over its surface. One was larger, towards the upper left edge, and was labeled "R."

"The Blight isn't just some big isolated area, like we thought," Sipho explained. "You see this?" he asked, pointing towards the R on the circle. "This is the best map of The Blight we have, and this R represents the base." He dragged his finger towards the edge of the circle. "That's the edge, where it all comes to an end," he went on. "We thought if we could scale the mountains that ring The Blight, we could just get out to the rest of the world from wherever the hell this place is. Most of us guessed Siberia."

"What IS over them, then?"

Sipho smiled knowingly, moving his finger to the opposite edge of the circle, to another bullet point. "This is another base similar to our own, though people only take shelter there from time to time. When we came over the mountains we found it there. Some of us had been there, recognized it."

Yuichi stood from his stool, leaning on the table and looking at the map with wide eyes. "No… you're not saying-"

"The Blight is infinite," Sipho proclaimed emphatically, a smile stretching across his face. "Or at least it's somehow causing everything to loop back on itself."

Yuichi slumped back onto his stool, shaking his head with disbelief. "But… That's impossible."

"Oh, absolutely it is," Sipho agreed, snickering with a hint of glee. "Completely against the laws of physics. Even if The Blight were its own separate planet it's small enough we would easily see the curvature."

"Then… But… How the hell did you figure this out?" asked Yuichi incredulously. "This is… well, pardon my French, this is fucking impossible. Where the hell are we?"

"Well, if we aren't on Earth or another planet…" Sipho said thoughtfully, "Then I suppose another dimension has to be the only answer."

"No, no, no," Yuichi stood, shaking his head. "Nope, that's silly, Sipho. That's impossible-"

"Sort of like a bunch of people in a never-ending landscape where these duels are the only way to survive?" Sipho asked to complete the thought. "Sort of like a random giant making you seize up and crash into my base?"

"Just because you make a good point doesn't mean it isn't stupid," Yuichi snapped, leaning on the desk and looking at the computer. "We can't be in another dimension!"

"We are. And people are watching."

Yuichi froze, turning to look at Sipho, who was grinning. Yuichi's eyes fell halfway shut, his expression tired. "You really like this whole being smarter than me thing, don't you?"

Sipho didn't answer. The satisfaction in his voice was answer enough. "We've detected signals coming in from the areas directly over the mountains," he continued, pointing to the edges of the circular map. "But there's nowhere up there for them to be coming from. Monitoring signals. The people who put us in here, I guess."

"I see," Yuichi said pensively, looking thoughtful. "You sure there can't be anything up there watching us?"

"I've had people right up on top of the signals," Sipho assured him. "Not a single radar dish in sight."

Yuichi took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "So… alternate dimension, which _should_ mean we're stuck; How were you planning on busting out?"

"We can detect the signals, and somewhat follow them to their source," Sipho continued. "If we can use the Momentum cores of the D-Wheels, and push them beyond their limits all at once… We can send it along that pathway, and break out…"

".. Into the dimension we all came from in the first place," Yuichi completed, a note of excitement in his voice. "Right in front of the bastards that threw us all in here!" His fist clenched, and he smiled grimly. His eyes burned with anticipation and anger.

Sipho eyed him warily. "In theory, yeah." He sighed, gesturing at the flock of D-Wheels. "Not that that'll happen anytime soon. We only have ten D-Wheels at the moment, including yours. We need a lot more than that."

Yuichi flashed his gaze to Sipho. "How many more?"

He shrugged. "As many as possible. Preferably at least a hundred."

Yuichi visibly deflated. "Wow, uh… that's quite a lot."

Sipho sighed again. "Tell me about it," he said wearily, leaning back in his chair and tilting his head back to look skyward, at the dingy ceiling. "Especially given the only places to get D-Wheels…"

"The Cleaners," Yuichi finished, the weight of Sipho's task dawning on him. The other boy nodded silently. The sadness in the room was palpable for a minute before Sipho finally raised his head and spoke again.

"Bad times may be coming to hinder us as well. We're nearly at Day 200. You remember what happened back on Day 100."

"The Cleaners," Yuichi repeated, with frustration. "Those bastards probably do have something planned for us then, too."

"I'd bet on it," Sipho said bitterly. "We'll soon have more shit breathing down our necks than ever. I don't think anyone will be able to survive long enough to get the D-Wheels we need."

Yuichi considered this silently. They were both quiet for almost a full minute before he spoke, quietly.

"I'll help you get them."

Sipho blinked, looking at Yuichi with surprise. "Sorry?"

"I'll help you get your hundred D-Wheels." Yuichi crossed to his D-Wheel, climbing atop it to sit sideways, hand rested on the dash. "I'm mobile, my D-Wheel is in better shape… I can get out further, get more people to help the cause."

"You're forgetting something," Sipho chided. "You have a man somewhere outside those walls just waiting for you to leave and send a lightning bolt your way. You and I more than anyone have it the roughest here in The Blight."

Yuichi waved a hand. "I'll be fine," he lied. "Look, I've taken down Cleaners before. Several. Whatever else they throw at us, I'll roll with it. How many of your guys did you lose just getting these D-Wheels?"

Sipho looked angry at first, but his expression sobered quickly, nodding despondently. "There were nearly fifty of us here, when I showed up," he answered sadly. Yuichi winced in sympathy. He had to have seen no more than twenty duelists within the walls since he had woken up. He reached out, holding his hand out to Sipho.

"I can bear the load of dueling the Cleaners, once I restore my Life a little," he assured him, smiling encouragingly. "Besides, you guys have been cooped up here for months, while I've been outside. I have allies."

Sipho met his gaze, contemplating. "You think they'll help?" he asked.

"If it means getting out of here? They'll blow through a thousand Cleaners," Yuichi assured him with conviction.

Sipho smiled, leaning forward and wrapping an arm around Yuichi, ignoring the offered handshake. Yuichi stiffened immediately like a board. "Thank you, Kawasaki Yuichi," he said sincerely. "It means a lot. To me and the others here-"

"Okaaaay," Yuichi interrupted, squirming free. "The hugging thing, not a fan, personally. I'll get your D-Wheels without it, don't worry."

Sipho looked puzzled for a second before chuckling. "Alright, alright… Now. Let's come up with a plan to get you out of this area with your Life intact."

* * *

Morgan shook his head, amused as he observed the screen before him. An audio feed was there before him, spiking as Sipho spoke, the slightly fainter words of Yuichi coming through as well.

"He'll never be able to break through the dimensional barrier, even if he has all the D-Wheels in The Blight," he assured Jan, who was sitting across from him with lips pursed, hands folded across her lap. "He's really underestimating the energy burst he would need to breach the dimensional barrier."

Jan nodded slowly, patiently. "I realize that, Dr. Morgan, but I have something else I would like to talk to you about. Something that doesn't really concern The Blight."

Morgan frowned. "What is it? Are some of the scientists having personal troubles? Are you?" he asked with concern.

Jan shook her head. "No, I'm fine, but… I'm worried Benga might not be."

Morgan sighed, sitting back in his chair. "We've both talked to him about this, Jan," he said wearily.

"I know, it's just… Benga's bored here, he needs to feel challenged or, or he doesn't think he's doing any good." Jan looked plaintively at Morgan. "He feels like he's not contributing anything, Dr. Morgan. All the people he feels can challenge him are in The Blight."

Morgan glared at this. "I thought this didn't concern The Blight," he reminded her tightly. Jan let out a huff.

"It doesn't have to, I just think it would be better if you weren't so dismissive of how little control Benga feels he has."

"He doesn't have any control," Morgan responded simply. He pointed to the picture of the Crimson Dragon's symbol. It had been removed from its frame and propped up against a coffee mug. "His destiny and how it plays out was decided the moment that birthmark appeared on his arm." He shrugged his shoulders. "Even we don't have control, Jan, much as we like to think we do. We can add Cleaners or damage them all whenever we feel like it, but we're all ultimately subject to the will of cosmic forces beyond our understanding."

Jan sighed. "I realize that, Morgan. But Benga is still young. He doesn't grasp things that abstract. To him he's just taking up space."

"Well, surely we can find something for him to do around here," Morgan conceded reluctantly. "Let's see here… what does Benga like to do?"

"Duel, mostly."

"Ah, right. Well, that… that makes it rather hard to place him, then."

Their conversation was cut short by a loud beeping from Morgan's computer. His eyes immediately grew worried as he tapped a key, a video feed to the lab opening up. "What's going on, Yoshida?" he asked the wide-eyed scientist who appeared on-screen.

"Doctor, there's someone coming through Gate 2!" she responded, clearly frightened. "The security force is on its way, but the Gate is causing power fluctuations to affect the entire building! We don't-"

She was cut off as Morgan's screen went black, as did every light in his office, leaving only the fading light of late evening filtering through his windows. Morgan swore, rising from his seat quicker than most would believe the old man capable of, and he and Jan booked it to the lab, sprinting down the hallway as the lights flickered off one by one.

"If the security force took the elevator, we're in trouble," Jan called over the clamor of scientists running away from the lab. "The power fluctuations have never reached your office before. They'll undoubtedly have hit the elevator," she lamented as they passed that very elevator, the one that Benga had taken to this floor the day the white rider entered their lives.

"I know," Morgan said lowly, voice gruff, wheezing a bit in the effort of his run. "Let's just hope they took the stairs… Otherwise we don't have much hope of containment."

They approached the steel door to the lab, which had been augmented with the entire wall of that area being made of the same steel since the rider had so eloquently demonstrated the error in their construction methods. A loud thud came from the other side, as if something had struck it hard.

Jan jerked to a stop, gasping at the sound, hands flying to her mouth. Morgan pulled up short as well, gasping for air. They appraised the door warily for a moment, then Morgan took a deep breath and swiped his keycard, the door swinging open as he and Jan rushed inside.

* * *

 _Diary of Kawasaki Yuichi_

 _Day 196 (cont.)_

 _Learned an awful lot about The Blight from Sipho today. Stuff I never would have even guessed at. Apparently we're all in some other dimension, but Sipho knows how to get us all out. With a metric shitload of D-Wheels, anyway. I know it sounds like a bad con, but I trust Sipho. He seems like a decent guy, he got chased by the nutcase in the Labor Day ensemble too, though he got mighty pissy at me when I mentioned Izzie._

 _Probably isn't going to like my idea for how to get those D-Wheels, then…_

* * *

A large, hulking object flew between them as they scattered on entering, the shape making a beeline for the open doorway. Jan whacked her shoe against it, sending it flying shut with a resounding clank. The creature smacked against the door, bellowing with rage.

"Hey, you guys are no fun, are you?" Jan looked to see Gate Two roiling with bright white light, the silhouette of a single person standing in its threshold. He was short, but stocky, very muscular and probably weighing in at over two hundred pounds, probably a little younger than she herself was. His head was shaved close to his scalp, shining in the light of the Gate, reflecting it. His face was built a bit like a wall, rugged and with little room for expression, though it was managing a lazy smile at the moment. He was decked out in a baggy black jumpsuit, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, accommodating his Duel Disk, a strange brown oblong model that bore a glowing red straight-edged blade, a perfect rectangle. Surmounting the ensemble was a long, ratty blue scarf, and a swirling golden symbol on his breast pocket.

"Your place is impressive," he admitted, looking around appreciatively as Jan and Morgan looked on, eyes wide. "I was expecting to come out in some random street, but, no, you guys impress." He turned his gaze on Jan, eyes not carrying a hint of the good humor in his voice or smile. "Now… why did you have to go and shut the door, hmm?" he asked, gesturing with a hand. The great hulking form that had assaulted the doorway turned on her then, a pair of glowing red eyes leering at her.

Jan bolted, running to the far edge of the room. The beast shambled after her, footsteps sending light tremors through the room. Something large and cylindrical was swung down at her, and she leaped to the side, barely avoiding it.

"Now, now," the man chided, sounding almost bored. "There's really no point in running. I'll break down that fancy door of your sooner or later, so just give me one of your card keys out of here and I'll be on my- Hey old man, no way!"

Jan looked over her shoulder to see the monstrosity chasing her turn and lob its club at the computer at the back of the room, one Morgan was hunched over. Morgan turned to see it, letting out a weak yell before diving to the ground, the object sailing overhead and obliterating the lockdown computer, remnants of its casing and motherboard flying everywhere. The desk it had rested on collapsed the debris all falling on Morgan.

"Doctor Morgan!" Jan ran across the room, heedless of the giant as she reached Morgan, kneeling down beside him and pulling debris off him.

"Thanks for getting in the same spot," the man laughed, his hand pointing to the two carelessly. "Now. Crush them." His beast lumbered forward, raising two meaty hands up high in the air.

Jan paled, and closed her eyes.

Light exploded through her lids, and she opened them in surprise as a loud crackling sound ran through the room. Static electricity washed over the assailant, and the beast shambled back, disappearing into the air without a trace, as something bright and fire-white crouched protectively in front of Jan and Morgan. Something very big that came in the shape of a dragon.

"You all are having a party down here and didn't invite me?" Jan recognized Benga's voice as the apparition faded, the open doorway coming into view. The boy was standing in it, his Duel Disk active, the red blade that came in the shape of a dragon's fang held out before him as he appraised the jumpsuit-wearing man before him. "Jeez, you can't take me _anywhere,_ can you?" he drawled sarcastically.

"Benga, run away!" Jan yelled, in a panic.

"Nah," was Benga's only response. He held up a keycard, wagging it pointedly towards the two. "You dropped this outside, by the way," he called to Morgan idly, his eyes fixed on the stranger. "But you're getting old, forgetful, we all know that. Let's talk about… _you._ " He grinned maliciously, looking almost like a cat that had found a mouse colony. "You don't look like you're from around here, big guy. Care to share?"

The man eyed Benga with an unimpressed eye. "Name's Ali. Tyson Ali," he said simply. "Who the hell are you, kid?"

"Todorashi Benga, at your service," Benga was quick to reply, reaching behind him and throwing the door shut. It clunked shut ominously. "And I have a proposition for you, Mr. Tyson Ali."

Tyson didn't miss the mockery in Benga's voice, and his voice grew harsher, angrier. "Yeah, well keep it to yourself. I don't make deals with insolent brats like you, alright?"

"Oh?" asked Benga, holding up the keycard. "Not even when it could get you one of these?" he asked knowingly.

"Benga!" Jan shouted, appalled.

Tyson narrowed his eyes, suspicious. "What do you mean, kid?" he asked tersely.

"Benga," Jan began angrily. "I forbid you to give him that keycard! People could die!"

Benga chuckled. "C'mon, Jan, it's simple… All he has to do is beat me in a duel, and it's his. He loses, and it isn't. Can't think of a deal more fair than that."

Jan immediately clammed up. She sat back on her knees, the wheels turning in her head. Eventually she averted her gaze from Benga to Morgan. He had fallen unconscious. She looked back at Benga, and was shocked to see his gaze had switched to her, eyes narrowed, daring her to tell him no. There was cold assurance there. Assurance that the only way was his.

She bowed her head. "Do it," she said quietly.

Benga's pointed canines gleamed in the light of the Gate at her words, and he reached to his deck, drawing five cards. "How bout it, big guy, you up for it?" he roared out in challenge.

Tyson laughed heartily, malice in his voice. "Oh, I'm gonna enjoy this a lot."

"DUEL!"

 **Benga (4000) vs Tyson (4000)**

"The first move is mine!" Tyson yelled, taking a card from his hand. "I summon Battlin' Boxer Headgeared!" A boxer bearing blue skin appeared before him, punching its gloved fists together and leering out at Benga from within its padded helmet.

 **Battlin' Boxer Headgeared, Level 4, FIRE, Warrior, 1000/1800**

"When this card is Normal Summoned, I send a Boxer in my Deck to the Graveyard! I send Battlin' Boxer Tapout! Now…" he went on, taking a second card from his hand with a smirk upon his lips. "When I control a Boxer monster, I can summon this card! Come, Battlin' Boxer Sparrer!" Another monster, this one decked out in green pads and bearing large rectangular mats on its arms appeared to fall in beside Headgeared.

 **Battlin' Boxer Sparrer, Level 4, FIRE, Warrior, 1200/1400**

Benga's eyes widened, as did his shark-like grin. "It's coming," he whispered under his breath, leaning forward. "Go on then… show me!"

Tyson seemed more than happy to oblige. "I use the Level 4 Headgeared and Level 4 Sparrer… Overlay!"


End file.
